Superstition
by Outsane
Summary: Zuko and Toph have joined Aang, and the group is finally complete. Now on their way to Ba Sing Se, can the Gaang avoid capture with both the Fire Nation and the Bei Fongs chasing them? \:\Zutara/:/
1. Knock On Wood

**Chapter 1 – Knock On Wood**

* * *

"Ugh," Katara groaned as she rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Morning already?" She glared at the sun, wondering how Aang and Sokka could sleep when the sun was so bright. These thoughts were quickly forgotten, however, as her stomach rumbled loudly. She stared sadly at her empty stomach, recalling that she hadn't eaten decent food in over three days. And since the boys were asleep, she figured this would be a perfect opportunity to go and collect some (hopefully edible) food for them to eat, without distraction.

As silently as she could, Katara stood up, rolled up her sleeping bag, and grabbed a basket to take into the small forest where they had chosen to camp out last night. Appa snored quietly a small distance away, but Katara could swear that the ground shook when the flying bison snored loud enough.

Stepping carefully over some roots and rocks, she entered the small wilderness and began looking for food. Her search wasn't going so well, though, and after going around for a full twenty minutes, all she had to show for her efforts were a few nuts and a misshapen, yellow thing that at least _looked_ edible.

Katara sighed deeply, and as she drew in that deep breath, she also got a whiff of something that smelled vaguely like a fire. She frowned—Aang and Sokka shouldn't be awake yet, and even if they were, the chances of them starting a fire at this hour were minimal. Following the scent of the burning wood, Katara crept quietly through the forest, coming to a halt just outside the edge of the forest. She caught her breath as she saw a Fire Navy ship digging into the sand of the beach. Fire Nation soldiers sat around numerous small fires, talking quietly among themselves.

Suddenly, Katara found herself regretting Aang's decision to fly close to the ocean in order to get air currents for Appa. The boy had argued that the air currents would make flying easier for the flying bison, meaning that he wouldn't get tired as fast and the group could go farther daily. But now, Katara was wondering if that had really been a wiser choice than flying inland.

A moment of contemplation later, Katara spun around on her heel and started running back in the direction of camp. She had gone a whole ten feet or so before she realized that she really had no idea which direction she had come from. She had been so preoccupied with the notion of following the scent of fire that she had totally forgot to keep track of where she was going.

_Oh well,_ Katara thought to herself as she began running straight forward again. _I guess I'll have to keep going until I find Aang and Sokka._

* * *

Ten minutes later, Katara stood bent-over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Somehow she had ended up back at the beach, but at least there were no Fire Nation soldiers in sight. She sighed in relief, but it came out as more of a huffy grunt than a sigh. She plopped herself down onto the ground, and reached for her basket to eat some of the nuts. All this running so early in the morning was really making her hungry.

But, where was the basket?

Katara groaned and dropped her head between her knees. How had she managed to lose the basket? She tried to remember where she'd last had it. She closed her eyes and groaned even louder as she vaguely remembered dropping it when she saw the Fire Nation ship. And as little food as was in that basket, and as cheap as the basket had been, she needed both back. Picking herself up off the ground, she turned and started jogging back in what she hoped was the direction of the Fire Nation navy.

* * *

**Meanwhile, back at camp…**

"Aang, have you seen Katara?" Sokka asked groggily. He'd woken up late today, which wasn't all that surprising. Aang was also just waking up.

"Nope," Aang answered simply. "But the basket is gone, so I bet she went to go find some food."

"Hmm. I wonder how long she's been gone."

"I dunno. I just woke up, Sokka!"

"She'll be back soon, I bet. With food, hopefully. Say, have we got any food left from that pathetic excuse for a dinner we had last night?"

"Yeah, just some bread though. Want some?" Aang held up a small loaf of hard bread, offering it to Sokka, who took it greedily.

It would be hours before either of them suspected anything of Katara's disappearance.

* * *

It had taken about fifteen minutes for Katara to reach the edge of the forest again, but she couldn't find the basket. She frowned and began searching as quietly as she could for the basket. She wasn't having much luck.

Suddenly, she felt a pair of strong hands latch onto her shoulders. She jumped, emitting a small squeal of surprise. She tried to turn around, but her captor's grip on her shoulders was too strong. She squirmed about, but stopped as her captor spun her around, somehow managing to keep his hold on her strong. She looked up into the stern face of a Fire Nation soldier. She started squirming again, but it was useless as the man grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her over a shoulder. She hit him repeatedly on the back with her tiny fists, but the man didn't appear to notice as he carried her towards his camp.

"Let me go!" She protested loudly. "Get your hands off of me!"

The troops sitting around the fires turned as the man walked through the camp and up to the ship, their chatter ceasing as he passed. As soon as he was on the ship and out of sight, their chatter began again.

"Isn't that the girl who travels with the Avatar?"

"It sure looks like it."

"She looked like she was from the Water Nation."

"Yeah, she had dark skin, and the color of her clothes…"

"I heard she was a Waterbender."

"Really?"

The chatter continued on the beach, but up on the ship, the man carrying the struggling Waterbender was feeling very lucky indeed. Who knew that nature's call could bring about such good things? All he'd been doing was relieving himself in the forest, and then there was the girl! _How much luckier could I get?_ He wondered as he knocked on Admiral Zhao's door.

"What?" The Admiral barked from inside the room.

"I have something you'd like to see, Admiral Zhao, sir."

_Something?_ Katara thought bitterly. _I'm a thing now?_

"Come in, but this better be goo—" The Admiral cut himself off as he saw just what his soldier was carrying. "What is that?"

_Here we go again with the 'thing' business,_ Katara groaned inwardly. _Wait a minute… isn't that guy General Zhin or something? Zhin, Zhar, Zhu, Zhao! That's it, Zhao. Why is he here!_

"I have reason to believe that this is girl is the Waterbender traveling with the Avatar, sir," Katara's captor said. Suddenly, Zhao grinned.

"Very good, young man. Very good indeed. I am very pleased!" Zhao licked his lips greedily as he turned to one of his two subordinates in the room. "You, see to it that this soldier has a raise, and better food for a week! You are both excused, but leave the girl here."

"Yes, sir!" The soldier saluted as he left the room with Katara's captor. This left Katara in the room alone with Zhao and his other subordinate. Katara stood in the middle of the room, glaring at Zhao as he circled her, like a vulture circling his prey. She refused, _refused_, to show Zhao how terrified she was right now.

"What!" She snapped at him as he continued circling her. He was scaring her.

"My, my, what a temper. It's not good for young girls such as yourself to have a temper." Zhao backhanded her, and she fell to the ground, holding the left side of her face. Katara could taste blood in her mouth, and she was sure she had bitten her tongue. She could feel blood on her fingers from Zhao's vicious slap as well.

Zhao bent down and placed his fingers under Katara's chin, forcing her to look upward at him. "What is your name, girl?"

"Katara," she spat at him. Zhao nodded, satisfied. He straightened up and turned to his remained subordinate.

"Take Miss _Katara_ to the holding cell. Then go up to the captain and tell him to get this ship off of this miserable coast. And see to it that _Prince_ Zuko is called here. I want to see his face when I tell him that I've captured the Avatar." Zhao walked behind Katara and pulled the ribbon holding Katara's hair back out. Katara growled at him.

"But sir, we haven't captured the Avatar yet, sir," the subordinate stuttered, afraid of angering Zhao.

"We haven't yet," he muttered, strolling out of the room. Zhao got off the boat and walked down to the empty beach. The rest of the crew had already got back on the ship, ready to go. The girl's basket had been found near the base of the forest, and was sitting by a fire, waiting for Zhao's appraisal. He grabbed the basket, tied the ribbon around the handle, and plunged a knife into the strange yellow fruit. He placed it in front of a burning fire, and walked calmly back onto the boat. Two members of the crew pulled the plank back up onto the ship, and the ship pulled off the beach.

And if you looked _very_ closely, you could just make out the tiniest of smiles on Admiral Zhao's face.

"I've got you now, Avatar."


	2. Famous Last Words

**Previously on _Superstition_:**

While searching for food alone one morning, Katara is captured by Admiral Zhao and held captive on his ship. Zhao leaves her basket of food, her hair ribbon and his own knife on the beach as a message for Aang and Sokka, who don't know that she's gone yet.

* * *

"Ow!" Katara said as she was literally thrown into her cell. The guard glared at her and locked the door. Katara glared back, hoping he didn't notice how bad she was shaking. After she was sure he was out of sight, Katara let her 'tough face' drop, and she sat on the cold, hard floor trembling.

_How could I have let this happen?_ Katara mentally berated herself. _I let Aang down, Sokka down, even Momo and Appa. All I wanted was to get some breakfast for us all, and look where it got me. I'm trapped in a cell on a Fire Navy ship, and I'm probably going to try to torture me into telling where Aang is. But I won't do it! I can't tell them!_

_Damn, there's not even any water in here!_ Katara noted angrily. _How did they know I was a Waterbender, anyway? Maybe they don't. Maybe they just weren't expecting anyone, so they didn't put water in the cell. Yeah, that sounds right. They weren't expecting to find me or anything. Stupid luck…_

Katara looked around her small, dark, and slightly damp cell. There was no source of light save for a small porthole that she would never even have a chance of fitting through. There was a small cot in a corner, and a chamber pot in another corner. Other than that, there was nothing. Katara sighed and hopped onto her cot.

_What's going to happen to me now?_

* * *

Admiral Zhao was in an uncharacteristically good mood.

"Boys, we as good as have the Avatar in our custody," he crowed over a mug of ale, drinking deeply.

"Um, sir, I hate to be the one to bring this up, but we _don't _have the Avatar. All we have is a little girl!" Protested one of the crew members, making sure to hide himself in a crowd before making this particular comment.

"And that's all we need!" Zhao retorted. "The girl is obviously important to the Avatar. As long as we have her, we don't even need to go looking for him. The Avatar will coming looking for us. Just give it a few days, and we'll have the Avatar locked up in that same holding cell that the girl is in. This plan is foolproof!"

The crew members exchanged wary glances at this last sentence, but picked up their mugs and gave cheers along with their commander officer.

* * *

Katara knew it had only been a few hours since she'd been locked—none to gently, either—in this cell, but it felt like days. Time, she noted bitterly, seems to pass by much slower when one has absolutely nothing to do. She tried to stare out her porthole at the ocean, her element, but the window was too high up for her to see out of. This effectively left the cot, the chamber pot, and the floor and walls for entertainment. Not a lot of options.

Katara eventually resorted to singing softly, almost humming. She quickly made her way through every song and tune she knew, and moved on to making up songs. None of them were any good, though, and usually had the words 'damn ship' and 'stupid firebenders' in them somewhere, even if it didn't exactly rhyme with the rest of the lyrics.

She quickly fell silent, however, when she noticed the footsteps coming towards her. She jumped onto her cot and pretended to be asleep. The guard unlocked the door to her cell, and Katara could hear his keys jingling loudly. He thrust the door open, and put the keys back into his pocket.

"Get out here, little girl. Admiral Zhao wants to see you for interrogation."

Katara sat up on the cot and stared fearfully at the guard, hoping for some sympathy. His harsh face suggested otherwise. She quickly got off the cot and followed him out, almost jogging in order to keep up with the man's brisk pace. She felt very short all of a sudden, after being with just her brother and a twelve-year-old for so long.

Katara followed the guard down a first hall, and then another, up a staircase, and down another hall, and she tried her best to remember exactly where she was going on this maze of a ship. She didn't bother with an escape attempt yet—she would have gotten lost and recaptured far too easily for her own liking. So for now, she would follow the guard, and hope that she could endure whatever the Admiral was going to do to her.

* * *

The guard opened the door slowly and nodded to Admiral Zhao before glaring at Katara. She took this as her cue to enter the room, and walked in as slowly as she could, taking baby steps. The guard, however, didn't like this plan much, judging by the way he pushed her into the room. Katara fell on her knees, and the door closed behind her.

"Get up," Zhao commanded. Katara obeyed, standing up and staring him straight in the face. She was shaking again, and she hoped against hope that Zhao didn't notice. "Sit," Zhao ordered her again, nodding towards a chair across from himself. Then he turned towards the one remaining soldier in the room, a young man of about twenty years of age with short, dark brown hair. "Leave!" Zhao barked, and the soldier was only too happy to oblige. He, for one, didn't want to see the torture of a child today.

Safely alone with Katara, Zhao placed his hands on his knees and stared deep into Katara's eyes. She met his gaze for as long as she could, but soon she dropped her eyes to the ground. Zhao grinned and reached out, placing two fingers under her chin, tipping her face up so her gaze would meet his. She averted her eyes to the side.

"So, _Katara_," Zhao said her name as if it were a curse word. "How about you begin by telling me everything you know about the Avatar's current whereabouts?"

Katara said nothing.

"I said, tell me!" Zhao said calmly, slapping her. Katara winced, knowing that now both her cheeks would be swollen and red. But still, she said nothing. "It would be smart to do what I say, Miss Katara. You'll find that this is a lot less painful if you just follow instructions." He slapped her again. Katara's eyes watered painfully, but she remained silent. Zhao stood, and began circling her again, like he had done just hours ago.

"Miss Katara, tell me where the Avatar is heading," he growled. He had expected the girl to break down and tell him everything after just the first slap. "It would be in your best interests, trust me."

_SLAP!_

"Tell me, dammit!" Zhao yelled, grabbing Katara by her loose hair and pulling her up out of her chair. She gasped in pain and stood up to relieve the pressure. She tried to push him away, but this only seemed to fuel his anger more. Zhao punched her in the stomach, causing Katara to cry out in pain. Her eyes, already watering, released their tears as Zhao released his hold on her hair. She almost fell to the floor, but caught herself and backed up away from Zhao. He hit her again, and Katara could just feel her ribs bruising.

"Stop it!" Katara yelled, speaking for the first time in their interrogation session. "Stop!"

"Tell me where the Avatar is," Zhao growled, hitting her again and again. Katara found herself backed up against a wall, with nowhere left to go. "Tell me!"

Impulsively, Katara struck out with one hand, connecting her fist to Zhao's right eye socket. The Admiral stepped back, stunned for a moment. Katara noticed his eye turning a bit blue, and realized with more than just a little bit of satisfaction that he would probably have a black eye soon. Then Zhao shocked himself out of his stupor, his animal-like aggression taking over, and he _hit_ Katara, much harder than before. Katara felt all the breath in her body leave her, and as he hit her again, she knew that this man could easily kill her.

Suddenly the punches ceased, and Katara found two strong, large hands tightening around her neck. The squeezed gently at first, then harder, making it more and more difficult to breathe. She clawed at his hands with her own, but to no avail. It _hurt_, and his hands felt so rough against the soft skin of her neck, and she could feel his fingers and nails digging into her skin, and her heartbeat began to race, and her vision began to fade and can't breathe can't breathe _can'tbreathcan'tbreathecan'tbreathe_—

A loud knock on the door surprised Zhao and loosened his grip on her neck. Katara fell to the floor, gasping and holding her throat. She thought she was going to pass out, and only heard bits and pieces of what the same brown-haired soldier from before was saying.

"…ship has arrived like you requested, sir," the young man told Zhao. "His ship… right next to ours... should be on board in a matter of minutes, sir."

"Thank you, young man. Please take our…_guest_ back down to her cell." Zhao turned to face a heavily-breathing Katara on the floor. "We'll continue this little _discussion_ later, won't we, Miss Katara?" Then he exited the room, strolling down the hall to go gloat to Prince Zuko, whose ship was stationed right next to his own at the very moment, about how he had captured the Avatar's girlfriend, and thus, the Avatar himself.

He did, however, have to pause shortly by a water basin to wash Katara's blood off his hands.

* * *

The young brown-haired man closed the door politely behind Admiral Zhao, and stared with pity at the young girl in front of him. She couldn't have been over the age of 15, by the looks of her. She sat against the wall, trying to catch her breath. She was a mess; her whole face was bloody, and blood seeped from a wound underneath her clothes. He made a mental note to take a basin of water and a rag to her once she was safely locked in her cell, so she could clean herself up. He walked slowly over towards her, trying not to scare her. He made a move to help her up, and that was when Katara struck.

The last thing that the young soldier could remember clearly when he woke up was a swift yet horribly painful kick to his groin. After that, he said, everything was a blur. While he was on his knees, Katara had repeated hit his temples and the back of his neck with her fists, hoping to knock him out. It took a few tries, but Katara suspected that it would be in her best interests to learn how to knock someone out with a chop to the back of the neck with only _one_ chop, not twenty. She whispered a quick "sorry" into the unconscious man's ear as she did her best to drag him behind the blind side of the door, so if someone opened it, they wouldn't see the soldier.

Katara took a quick peek out the door before stepping outside and sprinting—or at least, moving as fast as her damaged body could go—towards the end of the hall. It would, she decided, be a miracle if she made it to the other ship without getting caught. She ran around in what felt like circles for at least ten minutes before she saw people. She quickly hid behind the corner of a wall, and peeked around the corner to see what they were doing. They appeared to be exchanging goods between Zuko and Zhao's ships, food and ale from the looks of it. There was a plank connecting the two ships, and a wide opening in the side of each ship allowed the crew to pass between them. Katara sat there for a moment, wondering what she was going to do, when suddenly a horn began to blare.

The crewmembers dropped their crates and kegs and ran up the nearest stairs on Zhao's ship, which was, fortunately for Katara, in the opposite direction. Convinced that everyone was gone, Katara scurried over towards the plank and quickly crossed it, not even bothering to look at what was going on. She ran onto the other ship, and found a dusty pile of crates to hide behind. Now all she had to do was wait. It wasn't too long before she fell asleep, and dreamed of being back at the camp with Sokka and Aang.

_Anything has to be better than being on Zhao's ship,_ Katara thought to herself as she fell asleep. _What do I have to lose?_

* * *

Horns blared as Prince Zuko stood on the bow of Admiral Zhao's ship. It was a formality, really, since Zuko had been banished, but the Admiral had really wanted to rub it in Zuko's face today that he had caught the Avatar, not Zuko.

Behind his emotionless mask, Zuko was thinking about how someone should have taught the Admiral about not counting your chickens before they hatch.

Later, as Zhao recounted the day's events to Prince Zuko and General Iroh in the meditation room over a cup of tea, Iroh was thinking the same thing.

"And what of the young prisoner?" Iroh asked politely, sipping his tea. "Have you questioned it yet?"

"Yes," Zhao answered gruffly, obviously not wanting to talk about this subject. He wanted to gloat more about the Avatar.

"And what did the prisoner reveal?" Prince Zuko asked.

"Nothing," Zhao muttered. "Absolutely nothing, even with torture."

"Torture?" Iroh asked, eyebrows raised. "You tortured the child even though you were sure the Avatar would come for it? For what purpose?"

"To see if it had any useful information, of course," Zhao said.

"Useful information?" Iroh scoffed. "If the Avatar is supposed to be 'as good as in your hands', then why did you feel the need to torture the prisoner for information when the Avatar himself will be here tomorrow? If what you say is true, anyway," he added. "And I suppose that black eye of yours came from your little interrogation session, as well? That kid must be pretty feisty, eh?" The smallest of smiles played on Iroh's lips as he asked the question.

"I don't think that this matter is any of your business, is it, General Iroh?" Zhao said coldly, ending discussion. "It's getting dark, so you should probably get back to your ship, Prince Zuko, General Iroh." The two men got the message loud and clear: _you've overextended your welcome, now leave._ Neither of them could have been happier to get away from the Admiral.

It would be hours before anyone found the unconscious brown-haired man behind the door in the interrogation room, and even longer before anyone realized that their prisoner was missing. A search began, but no one could seem to find the girl. Finally, they assumed that the girl had jumped off the ship and tried to swim to shore. Surely, she'd be dead by now, since they couldn't even see the mainland anymore—but not as dead as they were sure they were going to be after they told the Admiral.


	3. Black Cats and Sea Rats

**Black Cats & Sea Rats**

* * *

Previously on _Superstition_:

Katara is interrogated by Admiral Zhao, leaving her pretty beat up. After he leaves to greet Prince Zuko, Katara knocks out her guard and escapes onto Prince Zuko's ship—not that she knows whose ship it is. She falls asleep behind some crates, dreaming of Aang and Sokka.

* * *

"Aang, I'm getting worried," Sokka said to Aang, sometime around noon. "You don't think anything bad happened to Katara, do you?"

"Probably not," Aang replied. "But we should look for her anyway, right?"

"Yeah. She most likely went into the forest, so let's start our search there, 'kay?" Sokka suggested.

Twenty minutes later, after combing through the woods and finding nothing, Sokka, Aang and Momo found themselves at a deserted beach. The remains of fires smoldered and smoked, but only one was actually burning. In front of this one fire was a basket. Momo hopped off of Aang's shoulder and bounded towards the basket, with Aang and Sokka close behind.

"Sokka, isn't this Katara's hair ribbon?" Aang asked as he untied the strip of cloth from the basket handle. Sokka nodded with a frown, and pulled the knife out of the yellow fruit.

"This looks like it was made in the Fire Nation," Sokka said as he examined it. "It's really expensive-looking, too. You don't think—"

"That Katara was kidnapped by the Fire Nation?" Aang finished solemnly for him. Sokka nodded again, his frown deepening.

"We have to save her, Aang! She's a girl, there's no telling what a ship full of men would do to her!" Sokka looked panicked and Momo hopped onto his shoulder, rubbing against him in a comforting sort of manner.

"Calm down, Sokka! We can save her! It can't be too hard, right?" Aang grinned at Sokka, but inside he felt so…_ guilty_. Katara had been out gathering food for all of them, and where had it gotten her? Captured and most likely tortured because of her association with Aang. It was all his fault. They would never have had anything to do with Katara if it weren't for him.

"Yeah," Sokka agreed, calming down slightly. "Yeah. We can save her. But… in the meantime…" His stomach rumbled hungrily. "How about we eat this stuff? I'm starving!"

Aang smiled, and picked a few nuts out of the basket with one hand, and fingering Katara's ribbon with the other.

* * *

It was morning before anyone found Katara. It was a chef who discovered her unconscious body behind the crates of biscuits, while he was preparing breakfast for the crew and soldiers. He probably wouldn't have even found her if that black rat he'd been chasing hadn't run behind those crates. He'd already been counting on an unlucky day—all sailors of the Fire Nation knew that black rats were bad luck. Needless to say, he was quite surprised to find a young girl sleeping on the ship. He picked her up in his large arms, amazed that the child hadn't woken up. He placed a large hand on her forehead, noting that the girl had a fever. The rest of her body wasn't in great shape, either. She looked like she'd taken a pretty harsh beating. 'Who is this kid?' He asked himself as he carried her gently up to the higher levels of the ship.

The chef knocked on Prince Zuko's door loudly with his knuckles, and almost instantly regretted it. What if the Prince wasn't awake yet, or wasn't dressed? Surely Prince Zuko would be angered by interruption, right?

"Who is it?" Zuko called informally from his room. "What do you want?"

"I'm a chef, and I found a stowaway!" The man replied.

"A stowaway?" Zuko frowned on the other side of the door as he pulled on a clean shirt.

"Yes, sir. What do you want me to do with her?"

"_Her_?" Zuko asked, incredulous. "It's a girl?"

"Yes, sir."

"Really…" Zuko paused, thinking it over. _How could a girl have possibly gotten onto this ship?_ He wondered. Out loud he said, "Take her to the holding cells. I'll see her soon."

"Yes, sir!" The chef took the unconscious girl down to the cells, and laid her gently on a cot. He locked the door to the cell, and decided that he should probably make something for the sick girl. He hoped she wouldn't be punished too harshly for being a stowaway, since from the looks of it she'd already taken some pretty hard punishment. In any case, it wasn't his business, and he went back to his breakfast, keeping the girl in his thoughts the whole time.

* * *

_How could a girl get onto the ship?_ Zuko pondered as he walked down the many stairs to the holding cells below with his Uncle Iroh. He'd asked Iroh to come with him to check this out. _It'd be damn near impossible. We have guards on duty round the clock, and it would be pretty hard to slip by all the crew members as well. How did she do it? And why?_

Finally, Zuko and Iroh reached the holding cell area. It wasn't hard to find the cell with the stowaway girl, since it was the only one that was locked. Iroh grabbed the keys off the wall, and unlocked the door. The two men stepped into the small, dark cell, looking at the girl on the cot. Zuko frowned.

"Isn't that the girl who travels with the Avatar?" He asked his uncle.

"It sure looks like her," Iroh agreed. "You don't think—"

"It's not possible. This can't be the prisoner Admiral Zhao was boasting about." Zuko refused to believe it. He was _sure_ that Zhao had been talking about the Water Nation boy, not the girl.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Iroh said, shaking the girl. He frowned when she didn't wake up, only mumbled a bit, eyelids fluttering, and moved around a little. He shook her harder, but still she slept. Sweat was forming on her face. Iroh pressed his cool hand to her forehead like the chef had, feeling her fever as Zuko watched from a few feet away. "The girl has a fever, a pretty bad one," he concluded. "We should probably get a healer down here. I'll go get one of them now, and he should be able to clear this up soon."

Iroh then went off to find a healer, leaving Zuko alone with the bruised and bloody Water Nation girl. He frowned, unsure of what to do. Cautiously, he reached a hand out and gently laid it on her forehead. She was burning up, and from the shape her body was in, the fever had probably been caused by the numerous wounds she had.

Stepping closer to the sleeping girl, Zuko brushed a lock of her loose hair out of her face. He noticed how red and swollen her cheeks were, the bruises circling her neck, the blood seeping out through her clothes. Her clothing was most likely ruined, and she'd be needing new attire.

None of these thoughts, however, were quite as prominent in his mind as the fact that if this was indeed Zhao's prisoner, then he'd stolen her from right under his nose; and that this girl would bring the Avatar to him. Zuko smirked at the girl. She could be the answer to all his problems. He fingered another piece of her hair absently, thinking of all the ways she could be useful to him.

It didn't take long for Iroh to return with the ship's best healer, who took one look at the girl and raised an eyebrow in question.

"What happened to this poor child?" He asked, beginning to remove her clothes.

"One of the chefs found her sleeping behind some have reason to believe that she is the friend of the Avatar's friend that Zhao captured yesterday," Iroh answered.

"So what happened to her?" The healer asked again exasperatedly. Iroh's eyes widened in sudden shock and understanding.

"Prince Zuko," he began slowly with a frown. "You do remember Admiral Zhao telling us that he'd questioned and tortured his prisoner, no?"

"Yes, Uncle." Zuko frowned at the old man, not sure where he was going with this.

"If this girl was indeed the prisoner, then Zhao was the one who did this to her," Iroh finished quietly. He looked a little angry. "That bastard, he as good as admitted that he knew she had no useful information to give him _before_ he tortured her! And she's just a child! I thought he was talking about the boy that the Avatar was traveling with, but doing this to a young woman, especially for no good reason… that's unacceptable!"

Zuko's eyes widened in shock for a moment before he regained his normal apathetic expression. He hadn't really thought about it before, but now that he did, he was horrified. To think that Zhao had done this to a woman, for no reason at all… well, it was frankly just sickening. Zuko didn't approve of violence towards women. Not at all. He still had nightmares sometimes about the treatment of father's treatment of his mother. Just thinking about those memories made him nauseous and angry.

"Zhao did this to her?" Zuko confirmed with his uncle. "Are you sure, Uncle?"

"Fairly, but we can't be sure until we ask the girl herself. How long do you think it will be until she wakes up?" Iroh asked the healer.

"A few hours at least, a few days at most," the healer replied unhelpfully. He laid a cool cloth on the girl's forehead and removed her shoes and robe, leaving her in just her underclothes. Zuko looked away, not wanted to be indecent. "She took quite a beating, and I'm going to need to take her up to the sick ward, Prince Zuko, General." Without waiting for an answer, he gently picked up his patient and began to carry her up to the sick ward. "I'll alert you when she is awake, sirs." And with that, the healer was gone.

* * *

It had taken almost two hours, but the healer was satisfied with his work. He stepped back to take a good look at the girl he'd been bandaging and cleaning up for so long, glad to see that the swelling of her face was going down. As for her neck and ribs, only time and rest would properly heal those. Luckily, the girl hadn't broken anything, and would probably be well again within a few days.

He was disturbed from his thoughts as the girl began to stir, her eyelids fluttering. Suddenly her eyes shot open and she sat straight up, crying out from the pain. The cold cloth on her forehead fell off and onto her legs.

"Don't move to much, miss," the healer suggested with a small smile for his patient.

"Wh-what did you do to me?" Katara gasped in her pain.

"Just bandaged you up a bit, cleaned you up. You should be better in a few days. Which reminds me, I must go inform my superiors that you've woken up."

"Superiors?" Katara questioned, but the healer had already left the room, leaving her alone. She thought this was a bit stupid on his part, and tried to get off the bed to run away, but found that she could barely move from the pain. Maybe leaving her here alone wasn't such a stupid idea, after all.

Minutes later, Katara was greeted by a very unpleasant surprise as none other than Prince Zuko walked through the door. She gasped.

"_You?_" She said in disbelief. "Of all the ships I had to escape to, it had to be _yours_?"

"Is that any way to treat your host?" Zuko asked with a frown. Just who did this girl think she was, stowing away on his ship and then treating him like this? "I treat you with hospitality and kindness and you repay me like _this_?"

"Hospitality and kindness?" Katara spat at this, she had gone through _all this_, just to get on another enemy ship! "You're probably just healing me so you can have your own little 'interrogation' with me. I'm sure it'll be even more fun than with that _Admiral Zhao_," Katara snarled, practically spitting as she pronounced Zhao's name. She shook her head. "I really have no luck, do I? Of all the ships that could have been the one I got on, it had to be _yours_! I'll probably be lucky to get off this ship with all my fingers and toes, from what I've heard about you!"

All of a sudden, Katara was very scared. Now that all her anger had been released, the fear was the only thing left. An involuntary shudder ran down her back.

"Unlike Admiral Zhao, I do not believe in hurting women," Zuko informed her curtly. Katara's gaze snapped up to meet his, her eyes wide in surprise.

"Really?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"Really," Zuko answered, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "So I assume that you were indeed the friend of the Avatar who got captured and tortured by Zhao, then, correct?"

"Yes," Katara answered, her spite and anger gone, replaced by her normal docile nature.

"How did you escape onto this ship?" He asked.

"On a plank. People were moving things, and I just walked across the plank after they left," she said simply. Zuko frowned again.

"How did you escape from the guards?"

"Well," Katara began sheepishly, staring at the ground. "I kind of knocked him out… and hid him behind a door… I hope he's okay, he was nice!" She finished quickly, feeling guilty for hurting the nice man. Iroh hid a smile. This girl really was trusting, and much too sweet and innocent to be caught up in an affair like this. But suddenly, Katara looked down at herself, and squealed in surprise.

"Where are my clothes! " She practically screamed. The other three occupants of the room hid their amusement, Zuko and the healer a little better than Iroh.

"I had to remove them to bandage you up, Miss," the healer told her with a small smile.

"So, you saw me… naked!" Katara whispered in horror, her face pale.

"Only for medical purposes, don't worry," the healer reassured her, laughing at her reaction. Iroh was laughing as well, and even Zuko himself couldn't resist a small smile.

"What's your name, Miss?" Iroh asked, smiling.

"K-Katara," she murmured, still in shock over the wholenaked thing.

"Well, Miss Katara, as soon as you are healed sufficiently, you and I will have tea together, and you will tell me exactly how you managed to give Admiral Zhao that black eye he's sporting right now," Iroh said with a wave and a smile, leaving the room. Zuko followed him. The healer, seeing that the girl was still in shock over being naked in front of a man, shook his head good-naturedly and left the room as well. After all, he had other patients to worry about.

He wasn't, however, surprised when a bowl of hot soup and biscuits arrived not too much later for Katara from the chef, with his best regards. _It would seem_, he thought to himself, _that young Katara has made friends without even knowing it._

_And she's also around the same age as Prince Zuko…_ The healer smiled knowingly to himself._ This is going to be interesting._


	4. Broken Mirrors

**Broken Mirrors**

* * *

Previously on _Superstition_:

Aang and Sokka realize that Katara has been taken by the Fire Nation. A sleeping Katara is found by a chef, who takes her to Prince Zuko. She has a fever and many injuries, and a ship healer bandages her up. Katara learns that she is on Prince Zuko's ship, but after a bit of a hissy fit, she is relieved that Zuko doesn't believe in hurting women, so she's safe. The healer notes that Zuko and Katara are around the same age, which will make things…_ interesting_, to say the least.

* * *

The next thing Katara knew, she was waking up on the bed of the sick ward, trying to remember exactly when she'd fallen asleep. She tried to recall the events of the last two days, but her head began to spin, so she decided to taste the cold soup and biscuits she found sitting on the small wooden stand next to her bed. A small note, scribbled on a piece of scrap paper, told Katara that the chef who had found her gave her his best wishes, and he would make something special for her once she woke up. She smiled widely, genuinely glad to have someone that cared for her even amidst her enemies.

_I wonder if Aang and Sokka know I'm gone yet,_ she wondered to herself. _Are they worried about me? Do they even know what happened to me? I hope they're getting along okay without me—I mean, I hope they're eating and bathing and feeding Momo stuff. Honestly, those boys…_

She took a sip of her soup. After no food in over 24 hours, she was ravenous, and the soup was delicious, cold or not. Katara shoveled the soup and biscuits into her mouth, making a mental note to thank the chef who'd made it for her.

And what about me? What's going to happen to me now? Prince Zuko said he wouldn't torture me, but that doesn't mean he won't threaten me. Or feed me. Am I really that safe here? On an enemy ship, can I ever really be safe?

"Hungry much, Miss Katara?" Asked the healer, smiling gently in amusement. Katara blushed and began eating in a slower, more ladylike manner. "Oh, don't let me stop you from eating, my dear. You must be starving; how long has it been since you last had food?"

Katara paused for a moment, thinking before answering.

"That depends. Edible or not?" She asked. This sent the healer into fresh peals of laughter, and Katara bit her lip as she tried to hide her smile.

"M-Miss Katara," the healer began, still laughing. "General Iroh wishes to have tea with you after you've freshened up. I've brought you a clean pair of clothes, and there is a hot bath waiting for you in another room, if you would just follow me there. You are able to walk now, no?" Katara nodded, getting off the bed and following him out of the sick ward, down the hall and up some stairs. "This is the upper level of the ship, where only the higher-ups get to sleep and bathe and eat. The rest of the crew and soldiers do so in the lower decks of the ship. General Iroh requested that you bathe up here, where it is more… private," he finished, opening a door for Katara.

"Thank you," she said, stepping into the room with a small bow. "For everything."

"You are most welcome, Miss Katara," the healer replied, closing the door behind her. Katara quickly stripped down out of the few clothes she was wearing, and was relieved to find that most of her wounds were healing. Fortunately, there were very few places where the skin had actually been broken, and the rest was just bruising, so it was okay for her to take most of the bandages off. She stepped into the hot bath with a sigh of happiness. Rarely in the Water Tribes did you get a hot bath. Katara decided that this was definitely a perk of being held captive by the Fire Nation.

After a thorough soaking, Katara scrubbed herself clean and washed her long, dark hair. She stepped out of the bath—which was getting cold by now—and wrapped herself in a fluffy red towel, rubbing her nose against the fabric. It felt nice against her face, so soft and comforting. She dried herself off and unfolded the clothes that the healer had left for her, wrinkling her nose at them.

Really, Katara knew, she couldn't blame the poor healer for it. The chances of a Fire Nation ship being supplied with women's clothing was slim to none, true. But she thought that the white boxers might have been overdoing it a little.

Other than that, there was a strip of clean white cloth for a breastband, a pair of silky-feeling red pants, and a golden shirt of the same material. Katara put everything on (including the boxers, which she debated on putting on or not for a few minutes, and when she did, found they were surprisingly roomy and comfortable), and wondered at the fit. For not being her own clothes, they fit surprisingly well. The pants fit loosely around her waist, flaring out a bit, almost like gypsy pants. The top fit fairly tightly, almost skintight. She figured this was due to the breastband, which seemed to be making her a little more… busty than usual, since the fabric was so thick, and so therefore took up more shirt space. Katara wondered for a moment just whose clothes these were, but didn't dwell on it as she marveled at the fantastic feel of the fabric on her skin. Feeling elated, Katara turned and took a look in the mirror across the room. And promptly gasped.

"I look horrible!" She whispered to herself. "I look like I got trampled by Appa or something!"

And it was true. Katara's face was bruised from Zhao's slaps, and her neck was exposed, baring her necklace of bruises. She knew her torso was beat-up as well, but those bruises were hidden under the fabric. Her hair was messy, since she hadn't yet combed it out after her bath. She looked… terrible. That was the only word she could think of to describe herself. She searched wildly around the bathtub for a brush, finally finding a thick wooden comb underneath another towel. (She hadn't wanted to seem rude by using more than one towel, so she'd left it alone.) Sighing in relief, she began to gently comb the tangles out of her hair. After a few minutes, her hair, made even darker by the wetness, hung almost stiffly from her head. She wished desperately that she had a ribbon to tie it back with, but beggars can't be choosers, after all.

* * *

A sudden knock on the door stunned her out of her thoughts. "Miss Katara, are you decent?" Came the healer's friendly voice from the other side of the door. "General Iroh is ready to see you now."

"I'm coming!" Katara said, nervous. The retired general had seemed like a cheery enough fellow last night, but who could tell with Firebenders? Like their element, they were often quick to change opinions, emotions, and temperaments. As she walked up more stairs and halls towards the waiting general, Katara asked what the healer what the general was like.

"He's very… eccentric, I suppose one might say," the healer said politely. "He is a good person, and likes jokes and tea. He also loves his nephew very much, though neither of them would ever admit it."

"How do you know?" Katara asked.

"Why else would the retired general follow his nephew in exile? Iroh has always acted like more of a father figure to Prince Zuko than the boy's own father ever did, that's for sure." The healer paused for a moment, looking scared. "Not that it's my place to say, though. That right there was treason against the Fire Lord, so kindly don't mention that little slip-up to anyone, please." He winked at Katara, who nodded understandingly. "And here we are! Good luck, Miss Katara." He opened the door, ushering her into the room and closing the door gently behind her. Katara gulped, not knowing what to expect.

"Please sit down, Miss Katara," said General Iroh from across the room. The old man sat at a small, low-to-the-ground wooden table, which was adorned with intricate carved patterns and had candles lit upon it. A teapot and two teacups, one empty and one full, sat on the table, along with a tray of delicious-smelling food. Katara sat down slowly across from the old man, never taking her eyes off of him. Iroh picked up his cup and sipped at it, then set it down.

"Would you care for some tea?" He asked, holding up the teapot. "It's my favorite kind."

"Yes, thank you," Katara managed as he poured the tea into her cup. Katara politely munched on her food, her eyes widening at the taste. Iroh noticed her frowning.

"Is the food bad? Is something wrong?" He asked gently, setting his teacup down again.

"Oh, no!" Katara exclaimed, shaking her head frantically. "The food is very good! Thank you!" She gave him a small bow, and continued to eat.

"Something is wrong, Miss Katara, I know that much. Whether or not you choose to tell me is solely your decision." Iroh began sipping on his tea again.

"It's…" Katara began. "It's just that I don't understand! Why are you treating me like this? I'm a prisoner! Yet you bandage my wounds, feed me, bathe me, clothe me, and drink your favorite tea with me! Why?"

"Well, there are many reasons." Iroh looked thoughtful. "For one, Prince Zuko has his honor, and that honor would not allow for a woman to be mistreated aboard his ship. He probably also feels bad that you were abused by Admiral Zhao, one of his own people, and might be trying to make up for it. For another, you're a kind, innocent girl, and nobody has any business dragging you into this whole Avatar business." He paused, sighing. "I suppose he might also be thinking that you are his key to capturing the Avatar, too." Katara's lips twisted into a grim smile.

"I thought that was it," she said, staring at the plate of food in front of her. "The Avatar wouldn't come to collect a body, after all. It'd be much better to keep me alive, am I right?"

Iroh said nothing, but stared into his teacup.

"If you don't mind, sir, I'd like some time to myself now, to think this all over," Katara said, politely excusing herself. "And thank you for the food and tea. It was very good."

"Don't thank me for the food. It was all the chef's idea," Iroh admitted. Katara bowed again and walked toward the door. "And I don't know if this is of any condolence to you, but I for one would have liked to see you treated well even if it weren't for… you know, the whole Avatar business. You are a very kind and beautiful person, Miss Katara."

"Beautiful, huh?" Katara snorted gently, raising a hand to touch one her bruised cheeks. "That wasn't really the word I would have used." She turned and gave one last wry smile to Iroh before exiting the room. She found the healer waiting to take her away. "Where am I going to now?" She asked.

"Back to your cell. We didn't have any rooms available, so we decided to take you back there. It's been refurbished, of course. I hope you will find it more livable than before. You will still have to be guarded, though. To make sure you don't pull another amazing escaping act like you did to Admiral Zhao." She nodded at him, and continued to follow him. As the pair rounded another corner, Katara found herself standing in front of none other than Prince Zuko. All three stopped suddenly, staring at each other. Prince Zuko was wearing a funny expression on his face, one that Katara couldn't figure out.

"What?" She said finally. "What are you looking at?"

"Uh—eh?" Zuko said, blinking as he seemed to snap out of his trance. "I was just wondering if those were mine…" He trailed off, staring at her funnily again.

"What!" The healer stammered. "I'm so sorry, Prince Zuko! I couldn't find anything that would come even close to fitting her that was clean of the crew's, so I tried to find something on the upper levels, and I just came across these, and they looked like they would fit Miss Katara and—"

"Quiet," Zuko said simply, holding up a hand to cut off the healer's babbling. "It's fine, I don't mind. It's just that…" He trailed off, still staring at Katara dazedly.

"It's just that what?" Katara urged.

"Those are pajamas."

Everyone blinked at this.

"Um, I can take them off, if you want," Katara said sheepishly. "Ah! Not here, I mean, but you know, I can wear my old clothes again, and it would be okay, and—"

"I said it's fine," Zuko said. Even his voice sounded a bit strange now. "They look good on you."

Everyone blinked again. The healer tried desperately to hide his grin at this comment, knowing that it would probably cost him his head if the Prince saw it. Suddenly, Zuko snapped out of his trance for good and continued walking past the pair. After a minute of standing there stunned, the healer spoke up.

"Let's continue, shall we?"

"Uh, yeah..."

* * *

Using the sun as a clock, Katara could tell that it was early afternoon when she returned to her cell. I must have taken longer in that bath that I thought, she thought to herself. The day certainly has gone by fast. I wonder how Aang and Sokka are doing… She spent a few more hours in thought on her new bed, thinking about a lot of things.

_Aang and Sokka… I miss them. And Momo and Appa, too. I wish Momo were here, he'd keep me company. I hope Zhao didn't capture Aang, too. I hope they're eating okay. I wonder if they're thinking about me? I hope they aren't too worried. I wonder if it's really okay for me to be wearing these clothes, anyway? They're Prince Zuko's! And the way he was looking at me… he said I looked good! I wonder if he really meant it. He was probably just saying it to be nice, like his uncle. But is he even that kind of person? I wish I knew him better so I could tell._

_Wait, do I really want to get to know Prince Zuko? He's my enemy! He's trying to capture Aang! His people are the ones that killed my mother!_

_So why was I so happy today when he said I looked good?_

Katara turned around suddenly, alerted by a jingling of keys. She expected it to be the healer, or the chef, or maybe even Zuko or Iroh, and got up to go see him. But she didn't know this man. He appeared to be a common Fire Nation soldier. So why was he here?

"So, you're the little girl everyone's been talking about, huh?" The man said, eyeing her hungrily. Katara shuddered. She didn't like the way this man was looking at her. She backed up a bit from him. "The one who's been traveling with that Avatar kid. Funny, you don't look like anything special to me. You'd think they'd pick a prettier girl to be their traveling whore." The man had closed the barred door to her cell, and was slowly advancing towards her. Katara stopped backing up, knowing she'd fall backwards over her bed if she kept going back. She held her ground and showed the man a stern face, refusing to show him how scared she was.

"Go away!" She said loudly. "You have no right to be in here!"

"Oh, don't I?" He said menacingly, coming closer. Katara tried to back up again, but suddenly the man lunged forward and grabbed her wrists. She screamed, and he pushed her down onto the bed, covering her mouth with his own. Katara wriggled about, trying to get out from under him, but knew she didn't have a chance. Her squirming only seemed to amuse the man on top of her. He moved slightly so that they were completely on the bed, and sat on her legs. Then he forced both her arms above her head, holding onto both of her smalls wrists with one of his large, rough hands.

"G-get off me." Katara whispered, then repeated louder with more force. "Get off me!"

"What if I don't want to?" He breathed in her ear. He kissed her again, so harsh and hard that she knew her lips were going to be bruised soon. Katara's eyes watered and overflowed. He forced his tongue into her mouth, he tasted so bad, and she wanted to throw up just to get rid of his taste. She twisted and turned, trying to get him off of her, but it was of no use. She began crying harder, tears pouring from her eyes and muffled cries coming from her mouth. Finally, she stopped struggling, just as his hand slid up under her shirt and under her breastband. She knew she had no chance of getting this man, who was twice her size, age, and weight, off of herself. But though the movement and struggling had stopped, her crying sure hadn't.

"That's better, little girl," he whispered. "Better not to fight it, just enjoy it. C'mon, you should be used to this. Show me what you do when you're with your little buddies!" Katara laid there, motionless except for her shaking and crying as he touched her. And then, as he reached for her waistband, she screamed.

"NOOOO! GET OFF! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! HELP!" She scrunched her face up and screamed as loudly as she could, tears running unrepressed down her cheeks and her voice cracking.

"Shit!" Whispered the man on top of her. "You're gonna pay for that, you little bitch!" He slapped her violently, then thrust both his hands around her small neck. He squeezed, cutting off her air. She tried to push him away with her freed hands, but it was no use. He kept squeezing and can't breath suffocating no air suffocating noaircan'tbreathe—

"Get off her!" Someone yelled from behind her. Katara's eyes were too blurry with tears to see what was going on, and her mind was swimming from the lack of oxygen. She was vaguely aware of the weight of her attacker disappearing, leaving her unrestrained on the bed. She sat up, holding her throat and trying to catch her breath. She wiped her eyes, seeing various people now in her cell. The healer, Iroh, Prince Zuko, and several other crew members that she didn't know were there. The crew members were holding down her attacker, who was struggling and yelling angrily.

"How dare you attack our prisoner?" Zuko hissed at him, clearly enraged. "How dare you attack a woman! How DARE you!" Iroh stood behind him, glaring at the man on the floor. The healer's eyes were full of hate towards the man.

Katara was terrified. She didn't really know what was going on in, still confused from the strangling and shocked from her recent encounter with a near-rapist. All she knew was that there were even more men in her room now, more people, more to be afraid of. With her back against the wall, she pulled her legs close to her body and hid her head. She was still crying, and a small wail directed the room's attention towards her.

"Miss Katara?" The healer began, extending an hand towards her. She looked up and her eyes widened, flinching at the touch.

"D-don't touch me!" She whispered frightfully. Why wouldn't all the bad men just go away and leave her alone? What had she done to deserve this? What had she done?

"You!" Zuko barked at the healer. "Take the girl up to my room. She'll be staying there for awhile." The healer nodded, picking up the sobbing girl in his arms. She fought it, but was too weak and drained to do anything. Soon, she lay limply in his arms, barely aware of what was going on. "As for that," Zuko said, referring to the man on the floor, "take it to the dirtiest cell we have. I'll deal with him from there."

"That little whore got what was coming to her!" The attacker yelled as he was being carried to the other cell.

"I'd stop talking, if I were you," Zuko warned.

"That little tramp, going around with the Avatar and that other kid all the time!" The man was dropped none-too-gently onto the hard floor. "You don't seriously think she's a virgin, do you? No way! She's a little whore, that's all she is! And I'm getting punished for doing to her what those two do to her all the time? I bet she'd have enjoyed it!"

Zuko violently kicked the man in the ribs, and he grunted and grimaced in pain.

"You bastard! You don't know what you're talking about! The Avatar is twelve years old, and the other man she travels with is her brother!" Zuko kicked the man again. "How dare you insult Katara like that!"

And for some reason, Prince Zuko, the impassive teenager that everyone was so afraid of, was enraged over the near-rape of a prisoner. Later, he would regret losing his temper so easily, but he couldn't deny that the stupid bastard got everything that was coming for him.

* * *

Katara was sitting hunched up on Prince Zuko's bed, no longer crying but still wondering what she had done wrong to be punished like this. Surely she must have committed some horrible crime or something, right? Surely.

A knock on the door came, and Prince Zuko slid quietly into the room. Katara looked up to make sure it was him, then stared at her knees again. She just wanted to go back to the safety of being with Aang and Sokka. None of this would have happened if she hadn't dropped that damned basket in the first place. She made a mental note to burn that stupid basket if she ever saw it again.

"Here," Zuko said gently, surprising Katara and making her jump a little. She hadn't seen him come up beside her. "Uncle Iroh sent this tea for you. He said he hoped it would make you feel better." The young prince tried to hand her the steaming cup of tea, but she didn't move, just stared at her knees again. Zuko sighed, unsure of how to deal with this. He had never been around girls or women, really, in his whole life. He set down the cup of tea on the table beside his bed, and looked directly at the girl on his bed.

"Look, Katara, I'm sorry." He paused, waiting for some sort of reaction from her. When he didn't get one, he sat down on the bed on the other side of her and continued talking. "I had no idea that something like this would happen on my ship. I should have taken better security measures to protect you, but honestly, I was more worried about you trying to get out than other people trying to get in. If it makes you feel any better, the man who attacked you has been severely punished." Katara looked up at him in question, her eyes streaming with tears again. "Let's just say he won't be able to have any more children and leave it at that, okay?"

All of a sudden, he was sitting next to a shaking, hiccupping, sobbing girl. He sighed and draped an arm around her shoulders in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Comforting hysterical girls wasn't exactly one of Prince Zuko's fortes.

And before he knew it, Zuko found himself being pressed against a warm, shaking body as Katara turned and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing into his chest. His eyes widened in shock, and he was completely clueless as to what to do. After a few moments of stunned stillness, he cautiously wrapped his arms around her as well.

_This feels kind of nice, _Zuko thought to himself. _It's been a long time since I hugged someone._ Then he blinked and eradicated those kinds of thoughts from his mind. Or at least, he tried. But the longer he held onto the distraught girl and whispered soothing things to her, the more he wished that he didn't have to let go. Finally, he felt her stop shaking, and realized that she'd fallen asleep. He removed her gently from her grip around him, lying her down on his bed and pulling the covers up over her. She sighed in her sleep, looking peaceful but so sad. He frowned, wiping the tears off of her cheeks with the back of his thumb. Her face was so soft, her skin was so smooth, that he wanted to keep rubbing his hand against it…

Then he blinked and snapped out of his trance. He got off the bed, blew out the candles that lit the room, and crawled back into the bed. Fortunately, his bed was large and could easily accommodate two people. He pulled the covers up over himself and was slightly surprised to realize that he could feel the body heat radiating off of Katara. She was so warm, he just wanted to hold her and get some of that warmth—

_Stop it, Zuko! You are not another hormone-driven teen! You are a prince! So start acting like one!_ He scolded himself. He turned away from Katara, facing the wall, and willed himself to sleep.


	5. Spilled Salt

**Chapter 5 – Spilled Salt**

* * *

"Nnng," Katara moaned as she woke up the next morning. _Mmm, something feels warm. It feels so nice. I wonder what it is…_

She looked down to find an arm wrapped around her waist. She blinked. _Oh yeah… I'm in Prince Zuko's bed. I must have fallen asleep while I was crying… Oh my god! Last night… was that real? It was terrifying… _

Suddenly, the person attached to the arm on her waist squirmed, as if trying not to move. Katara closed her eyes and laid there motionless, hoping he wouldn't notice that she was awake. That way he wouldn't leave, because Katara liked how warm he was. She wanted to stay there all morning. But then Zuko moved, gently, as if trying not to wake her, slowly rolling off the bed. Katara found that she missed his warmth, she wanted him to come back—

_What!_

_Prince Zuko is the enemy! I shouldn't even be here with him, let alone sleeping in the same bed and _enjoying_ it! What kind of a friend am I to Aang? I just slept with his worst enemy! Well, not slept with in the common sense of the word, but in the same bed, and I _liked _it, so does that make me a traitor?_

"I know you're awake," Zuko said from across the room as he finished getting dressed. "You can stop pretending to be asleep now." Katara sat up and looked at him sheepishly. "Here's another set of clothes that you can put on. I wasn't sure if you wanted real clothes or those pajamas that you were wearing, so I just brought out both. I'll be down in the meditating room with Uncle, and I'd like you to join us for breakfast. I daresay you don't want to eat with the crew, and I don't want you down there anyway. Who knows what those lecherous cretins would do to you." He shrugged and walked towards the door.

"Uh… Prince Zuko," Katara called shyly, making the teenage prince stop and turn around to face her. "I just wanted to… you know, thank you… for last night…" She pretended to be fascinated by the pattern on the bedspread.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry you had to go through such an ordeal on my ship." And with that, he was out the door and gone. Katara sighed in relief and hopped off the bed, walking over towards the two piles of clothes which Zuko had left for her. She ended up picking the pajamas again, not just because they were more comfortable but also because they looked better on her. After looking in a mirror to make sure she looked decent, and a quick fingered comb-through of her hair, Katara opened the door and strode as confidently as she could towards the room she had been in yesterday, drinking tea with Iroh.

Katara had walked all of five feet before she realized that she had absolutely no idea where she was going. In fact, she had no idea where she was, period. _Who built this boat and why did they have to make it like such a maze?_ Katara wondered as she wandered down another hall. Finally, after about five minutes of walking around aimlessly, she walked up to a nice-looking soldier and asked him politely where the meditation room was.

"Go up those stairs, take a left, another left and it's the second door on the right," he told her. She bowed and thanked him, running up the stairs and all the way to the room. She knocked on the door before quietly slipping into the room. Iroh and Zuko were already eating breakfast, and a third cushion had been set out for Katara. Steaming hot plates and bowls of food and bottles of who-knows-what were sitting on the table.

"Get lost?" Iroh asked jokingly. Katara blushed and nodded. "Don't worry, this ship is like a damned maze, even to me, and I've lived on it for ages." Katara smiled gratefully and sat down on her cushion. "Help yourself to anything you'd like."

Katara looked at the food in front of her and decided that she couldn't name over half of them. Taking a gamble, she grabbed what looked like a roll, some sort of soup, a fruit that looked sort of familiar, and an unlabeled bottle. She tasted the fruit first, thinking it would be the safest. She was pleased to find that it tasted very sweet, and she liked it. Iroh and Zuko watched her as she then poured the bottle into her cup. She took a bite of the roll and then a swig from her cup.

And promptly spit it back into the cup.

"What—" She coughed. "—on earth was that? Are you trying to poison me!" She choked, coughing from the terrible taste of whatever it was that had been in her cup. Iroh laughed heartily, and Zuko was trying to suppress a grin—but failing miserably.

"Miss Katara, that is not a drink," Iroh chuckled. "That is a sauce that we put onto only the blandest of foods, and even then only in tiny amounts. And you just took a mouthful of it." The old man reached across the other end of the table to grab another cup, and poured some other liquid into it. He handed it to Katara, who took it cautiously.

"Is this safe to drink?" She asked, wanting to make sure this time before she tried to ingest it. Iroh nodded, and she took a tiny sip. It tasted good, some sort of fruit juice that she couldn't identify, and she drank deeply, trying to rid her mouth of the taste of the sauce.

* * *

Zuko stared at Katara throughout the entire meal. He tried not to, but he just couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the fascinating creature right in front of him. Women were amazing, he decided. He'd just never gotten the chance to really get to know one before. He wanted to change that right now.

Of course, another part of his mind screamed for him to stop, that this girl was nothing more than a tool to get to the Avatar, and that he shouldn't get attached to her.

_I am a fool_, he thought to himself furiously. _I can't get attached to her. She's leaving as soon as the Avatar is captured, and I'm okay with that. Why should I care if some silly little girl leaves my ship?_

_Because you like her_, another part of his brain informed him.

_No I don't! I don't like her at all! She is a prisoner, for god's sake, and I'm the Prince of the Fire Nation!_

_Then just why were you spooning with her last night, eh?_

Zuko had to admit that he didn't have a good answer for that one. He had chosen to ignore that fact this morning, and acted like it had never happened, and Katara hadn't said anything. Now he watched her as she took a careful bite of soup, making sure that it was edible. He wouldn't say anything, of course, but he had thought it quite funny when she tried to drink that strong sauce. For the first time in so long, he had wanted to burst out laughing, show some emotion, regardless of the people there.

He didn't, of course. That would have been terrible for his reputation. And surely Uncle would know how much he liked Katara if he did. Zuko didn't show emotions for just anybody, even his own father. He unconsciously touched the scar on his face, still staring at Katara. She was talking to Uncle now, laughing and smiling as she politely ate her food.

_Uncle really seems to have taken a liking to her as well,_ Zuko noted. _But I don't know if that's a good thing or not. In fact, that cook and the healer who took care of her both seem to be concerned about her as well. I wonder how she does that to people? How does she make them care about her so easily?_

The more her thought about it, the more Zuko realized that he didn't want her to leave. He wanted to keep her here, with him, forever. He wanted to get to know her better, to spend more time with her, to protect her and lover her and—

Wait a minute. Backup. _Love her!_

_That's right._

_Take your time, Avatar. I have no intention of letting her go anytime soon._


	6. A Master Plan, Of Sorts

Previously on _Superstition_:

After almost being raped by a guard, Katara wakes up in Prince Zuko's room. She, Zuko, and Uncle Iroh eat breakfast together. Zuko realizes that he doesn't want her to leave, and that he genuinely likes her. (In fact, he _lovers_ her!)

* * *

**Chapter 6 – A Master Plan, Of Sorts**

* * *

Sokka twirled the Fire Nation knife between his fingers as he and Aang soared through the sky on Appa's back. It had been two whole days since he had seen his sister. He was worried as hell, and it didn't help that Aang was—well, just being Aang, actually. The kid's playful antics weren't amusing Sokka as he thought of all the possible terrible things that a Firebender would do to a pretty young girl like Katara. Just thinking about it made him so angry that—

"Sokka, look!" Aang shouted suddenly. "Sokka, look! It's a Fire Nation ship!"

"Eh?" Sokka grunted, ceasing his knife twirling to see what Aang was looking at. Sure enough, there was a Fire Nation ship. Since Katara's disappearance, the two boys had been flying seaside to try and find her. This was the first ship they'd seen so far. "Gah! Aang! Look! It's a Fire Nation ship!" The younger boy resisted rolling his eyes and ignored this.

"Sokka, that could be where Katara is! Let's go!" Aang cheered. "Appa, yip yip!"

"Aang, stop!" Sokka cried, grabbing the giant flying bison's reins. "We can't just rush in there! We don't even know if that's the ship Katara is on!"

"Whaddya mean? Of course it is! It's a Fire Nation ship!" Aang protested, reaching for the reins again.

"Aang, there are a ton of ships in the Fire Nation fleet! We can't be sure that THAT ship is the one with Katara on it! We never even got to see the ship she was captured by, and even if we had, who's to say they wouldn't have moved her by now?"

"I guess… you're right…"

"Of course I am! They're probably trying to lead us with this ship. I bet it's just a decoy that will lead us to the ship where they're keeping Katara, so they can get to you. Dammit, I don't even want to _think_ about what those Fire Nation bastards could be doing to my little sister right now!" Sokka growled, fingering the knife again. "I wish it had been me instead of her! If I hadn't been so goddamn lazy and slept in, if I'd helped her gather the food, if I hadn't been such a pig and eaten so much the night before, then Katara—"

"Stop it, Sokka," Aang said softly in a rare moment of serenity. "There's no use. Saying 'what if' and 'if only', those aren't going to bring Katara back safe! So we have to go save her, okay?"

Sokka dropped his head. "I _know_, Aang. I know. But we don't even have a clue of where to start. We don't know anything. We don't even have a map! How can we figure out where we're going if we don't even know where we are? Or where Katara is? We can't do anything!"

"That's not true," Aang said tonelessly. "The Fire Nation took Katara because they wanted _me_ to come. It would be pointless for them to hold her hostage if I wasn't coming, right? So they have to let us know where they are!"

Suddenly, as if on cue, a huge explosion was seen from the ship below them. It looked as if someone had tried to set the ship on fire. The giant ship, which was made of iron, didn't appear to be harmed after the blast, but Aang was willing to bet that several of the unluckier crew members had gotten severely burned.

"What was that!" Sokka cried, surprised.

"Let's check it out!" Aang said happily. "Appa, yip yip!" The bison plunged downward towards the ship, which was in so much chaos that the giant creature was able to settle on the water within earshot of the ship.

"WHAT DO YOU **MEAN**, THE GIRL IS ON ZUKO'S SHIP!" A man was roaring. "WHY THE HELL DOES THAT KID HAVE MY PRISONER!"

Aang and Sokka couldn't hear what the other man said, but the loud man's yelling was enough to give them an idea.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOUR INFORMANT WENT THROUGH TO GET THAT PIGEON TO THIS SHIP! I WANT TO KNOW WHY ZUKO DIDN'T RETURN THAT DAMNED GIRL TO ME! WHY DIDN'T I SUSPECT THAT HE HAD HER! DAMMIT!"

More quiet voices were heard talking to the enraged man, but their words didn't seem to be quelling his anger very well.

"SET A COURSE FOR ZUKO'S SHIP **NOW**! GET THIS SHIP GOING AS FAST AS IT CAN, AND I MEAN **NOW!**"

Aang, Momo, and Sokka exchanged glances with each other.

"So if we follow this ship, it should lead us to Katara, right?" Sokka said shakily, hoping against hope that Aang said yes.

"Yup!" Aang said cheerfully. Suddenly, Sokka frowned.

"But how're we gonna follow them without being seen?"

"Uh…" Aang rested his hand on the back of his bald head, looking to be deep in thought. Then he grinned. "Simple! We'll just stay a little behind them, that's all! And even if they see us, it'll be exactly what they want! I'll be right where they want me, and we'll be closer to Katara!"

"Aang…" Sokka murmured. "I think you just had a really good idea. Am I dreaming?"

"Hey! That's not fair!" The younger boy pouted. Sokka bonked him on the head, glad to know that he would see his sister soon.

* * *

As the servants were rushing about gathering the plates that had been used for breakfast, Katara suddenly thought of something.

"Uh, Prince Zuko?" She asked timidly in a very polite and respectful voice. "Where will I go now?"

"For now, you will be escorted back to my room. You will be staying there with me until we find some more suitable living arrangements than the holding cell." Katara involuntarily shivered at the thought of going back to that cell. Zuko and Iroh pretended not to notice.

"Um… yes… but where will I be sleeping?" Katara asked so quietly that the others had to strain to hear her.

"With my nephew, of course!" Iroh said cheerfully. "Don't worry, don't worry, dear. He's not going to do anything inappropriate, I promise! Well, not while he's sober, anyway. I remember that time, when Prince Zuko had accidentally drunk a bottle of scotch thinking it was just bad juice! My goodness, he sounded like a sailor, and it was a good thing no women were around because—"

"Uncle!" Zuko growled loudly, fighting a blush but losing badly. "I told you to **never** speak of that again! Besides, that was ages ago!"

"Try two years," Iroh said, snickering as he sauntered out of the room. "Now remember, kids, always use protection!" And with that wise parting message shared, he was gone.

". . ."

An uncomfortable silence settled in the room with Iroh's departure, filled by nothing other than the sounds of the bustling servants. Zuko stopped staring at the table long enough to stand up and leave the room, saying, "I have to go meditate now. The healer will escort you back to my room. Don't try anything."

"Y-Yes," Katara stammered, following the healer back to her—Zuko's—room.

* * *

_Dammit, what was that all about!_ Zuko screamed mentally as he sat quietly in the meditation room. _"Use protection!" What the hell! Who does he think he's talking to! Some hormone-driven teenager?_

_Yup, _answered another part of his mind.

_I am a prince!_ Zuko protested.

_You are a teenage boy! It's perfectly normal to have those kind of thoughts about Katara. She is, after all, a very pretty girl. A real catch. In fact, it'd be worrying to NOT have those thoughts about her._

_For a normal boy! I am a prince, and I MUST capture the Avatar! That's the only reason I've even kept her alive! That's it!_

_Funny, I don't believe that's what you were thinking earlier at the breakfast table, now is it?_

_SHUTUP!_

Suddenly, the sheer absurdity of him conversing with himself on the matter overtook him, and he laughed, a low, bitter chuckle. Who'd have thought that the Prince of Firebenders would have fallen for some low-life Waterbender? Not him, that's for sure.

Well, apart from Uncle Iroh, anyway…


	7. Walking Under Ladders

Previously on _Superstition_:

After overhearing Admiral Zhao rage about how Katara is on Zuko's ship, Aang and Sokka learn of her location. They decide to follow the ship until it reaches Zuko, and Katara, so they can rescue her. Katara learns that she will be sleeping in Zuko's room, as well as the fact that he can be downright lewd when drunk, courtesy of Uncle Iroh. Zuko admits to himself that he loves Katara.

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Walking Under Ladders**

* * *

Uncle Iroh was up to something, Zuko could tell. It was in the old man's eyes, really. There was a sparkle of mischief in them, like he was planning something. And knowing the former general, it was bound to be something catastrophic to Zuko and his reputation. Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and hoped that it wasn't anything _too_bad.

Meanwhile, Katara was sitting nervously in Prince Zuko's room. She was alone, but just being in the room made her a little anxious. It was only the morning, and she'd be stuck here all day long with nothing to do. She couldn't complain, really—she could be back in that cell, for crying out loud. No, she much preferred Prince Zuko's room, but that didn't mean that she wasn't bored. She'd been sitting on a (padded, upholstered, and extremely comfortable) chair for all of ten minutes before deciding that she needed something to do. She snuck a glance left and right, as if to make sure that no one was watching her, feeling a bit silly but at least safe. Assured that nobody was watching her, Katara walked nonchalantly towards the water basin. Concentrating her energy on hand motions, Katara began to move the water up towards her hands, then away from the basin. She watched as her string of water looped around her and danced in the air. She focused her concentration on her waterbending and nothing else, blocking out the rest of the world.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Katara jumped and squealed at the sound of Prince Zuko's harsh voice. Losing her concentration, the water lost its form and fell to the floor. She whirled around to face him, but bowed her head and began to apologize very quickly, fearing punishment.

"I'm so sorry! It's just that I was bored and there wasn't really anything else to do and so I thought that I would practice my waterbending because I'm not very good at it and I just want to get better and I was really bored so—"

"Enough," Zuko barked, having heard enough of her apology to get the general idea that she was sorry. "I'll let it pass this time, but no more waterbending from now on, got it?"

"Yes, sir," Katara said softly, keeping her head bowed.

"Dinner will be ready soon, and I expect you to join Uncle Iroh and myself in the meditation room again."

"Yes, sir—wait! What about lunch? What time is it?" Katara asked, surprised that it was already time for dinner.

"It's almost six o'clock in the evening, Miss Katara. Someone came to get you for lunch, but no one came to the door when he knocked, so he assumed that you were asleep. Apparently you were too consumed with your waterbending to hear him, ne?"

"I suppose so," Katara said, blushing.

"A servant will come back soon to get you for dinner, but I have to leave for now. I just wanted to check up on you, make sure everything was okay. Also, we'll be stopping for supplies in a small port tomorrow, so we'll be getting some clothes and such for you." Prince Zuko turned and walked towards the door.

"Uh, wait!" Katara called suddenly. Prince Zuko turned around slowly to stare at her. Katara's blush deepened. "W-will I be allowed to go?"

Zuko considered this for a moment. "We'll see," he said indecisively, turning on his heel and walking out the door. Katara heard the guard outside lock the door after he closed it. She sighed and walked back over towards the water basin.

"No more waterbending, huh?" She murmured to herself sadly, swirling her fingers around in the remainder of the water. She looked in the mirror and tried to freshen herself up, combing through her hair with her fingers. Her stomach rumbled. "Wow, I guess I am hungry. I hope the guard comes to get me for dinner soon…"

* * *

_Should I let her go tomorrow?_Zuko wondered to himself as he walked away from Katara's room. No, wait! It was HIS room! Not hers!

Zuko shook his head to clear his thoughts, but they all seemed to be centered around Katara.

_She didn't even notice me coming into the room today. She must be really into her bending. Reminds me of myself when I practice. We can both lose ourselves for hours at a time in our bending, I suppose. I don't want to stop her from bending, but I have to. I can't let her keep getting stronger while she's a prisoner on my ship. I need her to be powerless, so that when the Avatar comes, I can capture him._

Suddenly, a new thought occurred to Zuko.

_What will happen when I do capture the Avatar? What will I do with Katara? And her brother, what about him? I will definitely hand the Avatar over to my father, but what about the other two? It's not like my father will want them. Right?_

_And what should I buy Katara tomorrow? She'll need dresses, for sure. I wonder how many I should get? I don't know how much longer she'll be staying with me. I better get her a lot of clothing—I plan on keeping her for awhile. Instead of me chasing the Avatar, the Avatar will be chasing me. And once he and that flying bison of his are tired and in the middle of ocean, I'll take him. I won't even have to give up Katara for this plan! It all works out great!_

_But will Katara hate me for capturing Aang?_

_It doesn't matter!_ Cried the sensible part of Zuko's mind. _Who cares if some peasant girl from a dying tribe hates you! Once you capture the Avatar, you'll get your honor back, and you can go home! Isn't that what you've been wanting ever since you got exiled?_

_Yes,_ the compassionate part of his mind retorted. _But sometimes the things we want change. And I want Katara. I'll never have a chance of meeting anyone like her ever again. I _love _her._

_Maybe so,_ Sensible Zuko said scornfully. _But you'll never get your honor back this way. You can never go home._

_Home is where the heart is, so they say. And my heart is here with Katara._

Sensible Zuko didn't have anything to say to that. Compassionate Zuko smirked, knowing he'd won.

"Augh, I'm doing it again…" Zuko moaned to himself, massaging his temples. "I have got to stop arguing with myself…"

* * *

Less than five minutes to dinner, Uncle Iroh was up to his plotting again. Just as Zuko walked into the meditation room, he finished a hurried whisper to a servant and rushed over to his seat.

"Sit, sit, dear boy," Uncle Iroh ushered him towards a seat. Zuko frowned.

"Uncle, what is going on?"

"Nothing, nothing at all, Prince Zuko!" Uncle Iroh chuckled innocently. "Why do you ask?"

"Uh, no reason, Uncle…" Zuko trailed off lamely, but didn't take his eyes off of his uncle.

"Good evening," Katara said politely, bowing to Uncle Iroh and Zuko. She sat down on a seat across from Zuko. Iroh took a seat at the head of the small table. The food was served, and the servants came around to pour drinks for the three diners. Katara took a sip from her goblet, making sure it was drinkable to avoid another incident like this morning. Deciding she liked it, she took a deep swallow.

Zuko drank deeply from his glass as well. There was something familiar about this taste, he just wished he could remember where he'd tasted this before…

* * *

**Twenty Minutes Later**

"Uncle, this juice is really goooood," Zuko slurred, taking another deep swig of his 'juice'. "What kind izzz it?"

"Yes, Uuuuncle Iiiroh," Katara agreed, giggling. "It's suuuper good!"

"Oh, just a little thing I like to call wine," Iroh informed them cheerily.

"Yum!" Katara giggled again.

"Wine, Uncle?" Zuko frowned. "Are you serrrrrving alcohol to minors?"

Iroh pretended to look thoughtful for a moment. "Why, yes, I guess I am!" He said happily.

"I shuuuudn't have any more," he said, setting down his glass. "Missss Kataraa, you shouldn't have any more eitherrrrr." He reached and grabbed her glass, pouring it back into the pitcher.

"You two should probably go back to your room now," Iroh suggested innocently. "Dinner is over and you two are probably tired, ne?"

"Yes, Uncle!" Katara grinned, standing up and bounding towards the door while bowing clumsily towards the servants. Zuko rolled his eyes and stood up, grabbed her arm, and led her gently towards their room.

"C'mon, you," he mumbled. He could tell that Katara had never drunken before, and wasn't exactly holding her liquor well, no matter how little she had ingested. He wasn't faring much better, since he had only gotten drunk once, and it was on accident, but he hadn't had as much wine as Katara had.

Once they were safely back in their room, Zuko locked the door behind them and led Katara to the bed.

"You need to sleep, Katara. You're drunk."

"I'm not drunk!" Katara protested weakly. She refused to get into the bed, folding her arms across her chest and shaking her head.

"Well, you're more than a little tipsy," he argued. Aggravated, he finally swept her up in his arms and placed her forcibly on the bed. She glared playfully at him as he set her down, grabbing onto his shirt and pulling him into the bed with her. Surprised, he landed directly on top of her, one knee between her legs and his arms on either side of her head for balance. Her hair was flowing on the bedspread and her blue eyes were staring into his own and she just looked so beautiful that he could—

Swiftly, Zuko lowered his head and pressed his lips against Katara's. She gasped, but he could feel her smiling as he kissed her. But he was the one to gasp when she began to kiss him back. Shifting his weight to one arm, he twisted his free hand into her soft hair, pulling her closer to him. Katara moaned into his mouth, and he could feel himself losing control over himself.

Standing outside the door, Iroh congratulated himself on a job well done. Besides, he figured it was high time his nephew got some experience in something other than fighting. Smiling widely to himself, he walked back to his own room to sleep—and formulate his next cunning plan.


	8. Don't Step On The Cracks

Previously on _Superstition_:

Zuko catches Katara waterbending when she gets bored after being locked in his room. He forbids her from waterbending, but doesn't seem mad at her. At dinner, Zuko and Katara unknowingly drink wine, courtesy of Uncle Iroh. Drunk, the two retire to Zuko's room, where some kissing (and some other stuff…) take place. Now that it's the next morning, what will become of our young couple?

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Don't Step on the Cracks**

* * *

Zuko woke early the next morning with a pounding headache. He was feeling pretty miserable, almost as bad as that time he'd had all that scotch—

_I'm going to kill Uncle._

_Murder him._

_Hang him by his ears, drop him in a vat of piranhas, slice him up with a butter knife—_

All torture ideas suddenly vanished from Zuko's young head as he suddenly remembered what had happened after Uncle Iroh had given them wine last night.

_Oh shit… _

_I kissed her! _

_And that wasn't all I did…_

Memories of hands in soft hair and on smooth, flawless skin turned Zuko's face roughly the color of fire itself as he remembered exactly what they'd done last night. What she'd let him do to her… he shuddered. How could he have corrupted something as innocent as Katara like that?

At least I didn't sleep with her…

At which point Zuko became abruptly aware of his surroundings.

"Mmmm," murmured Katara in her sleep, snuggling closer to Zuko's chest. His bare chest, come to think of it. Where had his shirt gone? Ah yes, it was lying discarded on the floor beside the bed after a noticeably drunk Katara had decided she liked men with muscles.

Zuko froze, unsure of what to do. Sensible Zuko told him to leave the bed at once, remove all evidence of last night, and let her think it was all a dream. Compassionate Zuko said that snuggling was a very very very good thing.

It was a short-lived battle. Sensible Zuko didn't stand a chance against Compassionate Zuko, who also had the support of other parts of his body that good manners don't permit mention of.

Zuko moved closer towards the sleeping girl, draping one arm loosely over waist. They went together like puzzle pieces, really. She fit just right when they curled up together. Some deep part of Zuko's consciousness recognized the fact that he was spooning with an actual girl, but he was too busy listening to the steady rhythm of her shallow breathing to pay any attention. He was also too busy noticing the way her soft brown hair tickled his nose when he buried his face in it, and the way she smelled so good, like a mixture of forest and smoke and just a hint of spices. Thinking about it, it didn't sound like a great thing to smell like, but for some reason it was how Katara smelled and he loved it. He was also aware of how much of her warmth he could feel through her thin clothes, which were actually his pajamas. Come to think of it, seeing Katara wearing his clothes was a bit of a turn-on.

_I could get used to waking up like this,_ Zuko thought blissfully to himself. For once in his life, he forgot about the Avatar, about his father and his pride. He forgot about acting the angry and sullen teenager and allowed his face a rest from its normal scowl, letting his muscles relax and a small smile of happiness take its place. Zuko couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this happy.

Some time later, Zuko heard a knock on his door. Katara, sound asleep, didn't budge. He frowned deeply, then resigned himself to getting out of bed. It wasn't easy to leave the warmth of the blankets and Katara to greet the cold air of the room. As quietly as he could, he washed his face in the water basin, pulled on some clothes, and left the room without a sound.

And damn it all, he still had a headache. Stupid hangover.

* * *

Katara woke up late that morning, alone and with a splitting headache. She moaned and rubbed her temples, trying to remember what had happened last night. Zuko was nowhere in sight. Had last night really just been a dream?

Then she noticed a shirt lying on the floor. She had a faint memory of removing Zuko's shirt last night and throwing it away, but maybe he was just a messy dresser? Either way, there was no way to be sure other than asking Prince Zuko himself.

But when she really thought about it while washing her face in the basin, the more unlikely it seemed that it had been real.

_Why would someone like him kiss someone like me? He's the prince of the world's most powerful nation, and me… I'm a poor waterbending peasant who gets around on a flying bison with a 12-year-old kid that said prince is chasing. There isn't even a chance that he would take any sort of interest in me other than for capturing Aang. So get over your little crush, Katara! _

She sighed and looked at herself in the mirror. Her bruises were gone and her cuts were healing nicely, but her hair was a mess. Again. She decided to take a bath, wondering if it would be warm again. Twenty minutes and a few muffled screams of frustration later, Katara finally figured out how to work the bathtub and was pleasantly rewarded with a steady flow of warm water. She stripped down quickly and stepped in with a sigh of pure bliss.

_This is the best,_ Katara thought happily as she sank into the water deep enough to let it cover her ears. Her hair flowed gently around her face, and though at first the warm water stung her numerous cuts and scratches, the pain turned to a soothing pressure after a few seconds. She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes in complete comfort. She was so comfortable, in fact, that she didn't even notice herself drifting off to sleep.

* * *

"Prince Zuko, sir!" Reported a nameless soldier as Zuko took his seat in the morning meeting of his subordinates on the ship. It wasn't an every-morning occurrence, though. Usually, they gathered two or three mornings each week, no more. There simply wasn't a need when there was nothing new to report, and since they were isolated on the ocean, they rarely got new news. "We'll be arriving at the port in approximately twenty minutes. It should take about ten minutes to lower the anchor, so it will be about thirty minutes until we are able to go to the city, sir!" The soldier finished with a respectful salute.

"Thank you, that will be all. The meeting is adjourned, unless anyone else has anything to share?" No one in the room moved. "Good. You're all dismissed." Zuko stood and left the room, heading back towards his own to tell Katara that he would be leaving. He wasn't sure if he would allow her to come or not, and decided to decide when he got there. _Go with the flow_, Uncle Iroh would say.

Zuko knocked gently on the door before entering, unsure if Katara was awake yet. Not hearing anything from the other side, he opened the door and slid in soundlessly. He saw a ruffle of blankets on the bed, and walked towards it, thinking it was a peacefully sleeping Katara. Finding her absent from the bed, he frowned. Where was she?

Katara was peacefully sleeping, alright. In the bathtub. Not that Zuko was to know this just yet.

"Katara?" Zuko called out cautiously. A little louder, he tried again. "Katara? Where are you?"

"Zuko?" Katara called groggily from behind him. She had just woken up from Zuko's yelling, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she hadn't drowned after falling asleep in the tub. Wait a second… the tub! "Zuko, wait! Don't turn aroun—"

"Kata…ra…" Zuko trailed off as he saw a naked Katara sitting in his tub with nothing covering her but her folded arms. Not for the first (or last) time today, his face closely resembled a ripened tomato.

"Eeei! Turn around, turn around!" Katara squealed. Suddenly, Zuko saw a small snake of water shooting at him with such speed that he couldn't even dodge it. It hit him smack dab in the face, making him sputter and cough. "Pervert! Turn around!"

Pure instinct forced Zuko's hands into the air and evaporated the water snake, and he almost attacked Katara before he realized what he was doing. In fact, he would have attacked her if she hadn't started crying.

"Turn around, you pervert!" She was sobbing, her dark wet hair covering her face as she visibly shook and the water snake collapsed to the ground.

_Idiot, you almost attacked the hostage!_ Screamed Sensible Zuko.

_Idiot, you almost hurt the girl you love!_ Protested Compassionate Zuko.

_Idiot, you just had a great view and you ruined it!_ Horny Zuko complained.

Zuko, confused and unsure of what to do, fled the room faster than Katara's water snake had attacked him. Slamming the door shut behind him, he leaned with his back against the door, breathing heavily.

_Geez, for being fourteen, she sure has a great figure! Must come from all that running from you she does! _Horny Zuko observed.

Zuko just pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I need therapy," he mumbled to himself as he walked towards the boats that would take him to shore.


	9. Hold Your Breath

Previously on _Superstition_:

Iroh gets Katara and Zuko drunk, and they retreat to their room for a bit off kissing and maybe a little more? (No sex, though.) The next morning they both wake up with a hangover, though Katara is unsure if it was all a dream or not. Zuko accidentally sees her naked in the bathtub. A new voice from the depths of Zuko's subconscious, Horny Zuko makes his debut. Zuko sets off to go to port that the ship has just anchored at after decided that he needs serious therapy.

* * *

**Chapter 9 – Hold Your Breath **

* * *

_Bandages, fresh water, bread, fruit, and corn meal,_ Zuko recited in his head as he stepped off the small ferry boat and onto the shore. He was trying to recall the list of things that he needed to buy for his ship in the port. _Why does it feel like I'm forgetting something?_

_Oh yeah, _he remembered as he passed a small cloth shop. _I need to buy clothes for Katara._

"You men, listen up!" Zuko commanded his small group of about ten men. "I need you to buy enough bandages, water, bread, fruit, and corn meal to tide us over until we reach the next port. I need to go take care of some private business." The men saluted, and as soon as they were out of site Zuko proceeded to enter the small clothing store.

A small bell rang loudly as he opened the door to the shop. Everywhere he looked, there were shirts, dresses, pants, and other assorted articles of clothing. Only one wall of the shop was devoted to unshaped sheets of plain cloth. No one appeared to be working in the shop at the moment, so Zuko took a look around. The front of the small shop contained mostly cheaper and lower quality clothing, so he moved on towards the back of the shop, which had softer and more expensive fabrics, including silks and satins. Lightly fingering a soft blue dress, he noticed something colorful from the corner of his eye. Intrigued, he went over to inspect it. It appeared to be some sort of skintight one-piece article for women, but it was completely transparent? What was the point?

_Don't touch that, _Sensible Zuko said. _You wouldn't want someone catching you looking at that. People might get some ideas._

_I'd like to see Katara in that,_ Horny Zuko suggested. _Why don't you buy it for her as a present?_

_I don't think Miss Katara would like that too much,_ Compassionate Zuko observed.

"Like it?" Asked a man's voice from behind Zuko. He jumped slightly, spun around to face the speaker. "Although you look a little young for lingerie to me…"

"I'm here to buy some girl's clothing," Zuko told the man, assuming he was the shopkeeper. The man squinted and gave Zuko a funny look. "It's not for me, you idiot! It's for a girl!"

"Ah, a girlfriend, no?" The man said, winking at him.

"Well, sort of…" Zuko said truthfully. "She's staying with me for awhile, but I have no women's clothing, for obvious reasons."

"I can fix that!" The man said excitedly. "Now, let's start with… dresses. What color would you prefer to see her in?"

Zuko considered for a moment, then reached into his pocket. Fumbling around with the money, he found what he was looking for and pulled it out. "Do you have anything that would match this?" He asked, handing the shopkeeper a necklace. The man inspected it for a few seconds before strolling towards the soft blue dress that Zuko had been looking at just minutes before.

"This would match it quite well, I believe. That is, of course, if it's in your price range. How much are you willing to spend on this girl?"

"Money is no objective. I just want to buy her some nice clothes," Zuko answered. The shopkeeper's eyes got a bit bright at this, and when he turned around Zuko could practically see the stars in the man's eyes.

"Is that so?" He said cheerfully. "In that case, I have some wonderful things that I think you should see—"

"She likes simple clothing," Zuko interrupted. "Nothing extravagant. Simple and plain."

"Fiiiine," the shopkeeper pouted. He whirled around the shop picking out a few other dresses in various colors for Prince Zuko, who agreed to all of them, save for the pink frilly one. He figured that even if he did buy it, Katara would refuse to wear it. Zuko tried to imagine her in a frilly pink dress, but it just didn't look good, no matter how he tried to look at it.

"Now, what about underclothes?" The shopkeeper asked, snapping Zuko out of his trance.

"U-underclothes?" Zuko stammered. "Do I need those?"

"Well, unless you expect your girlfriend to wear your boxers, yes!" The man exclaimed as if the whole idea were rather obvious. In retrospect, Zuko considered that it really was obvious. But then again, hindsight is always 20/20.

"Uh, yes, I guess I'll be needing some of those," Zuko said, unsure. What kind of underclothes was this man suggesting, exactly?

"So are you looking for something sexy or something colorful? Maybe something a little more _versatile_, so to speak?" The shopkeeper asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Zuko growled, confused and a bit angry at being left out of the loop.

"Panties, of course!" The man said cheerily, holding up a few pairs of panties for Zuko to take a look at. "I have many wonderful colors here for you to choose from!" The man threw a few pairs of panties in various colors at Zuko, who caught them on instinct. And promptly turned cherry-red for the third time that day.

* * *

Zuko knocked on the door to his room, praying that Katara wasn't mad at him for his little (though accidental!) Peeking Tom stunt earlier.

"Yes?" Came a timid voice from inside the room.

"It's Zuko. Are you decent?" He called, hoping she was.

_I hope she isn't!_ Horny Zuko said hopefully, earning some disgruntled complaints from Compassionate Zuko and Sensible Zuko.

"Y-yes," she called back. He opened the door slowly, just in case she decided to throw anything at him. Deciding it was safe, he stepped into the room and saw Katara sitting in his chair, looking out the window.

_At least she's not angry with you,_ Sensible Zuko said happily.

_Too bad! Then you could have hot make-up sex!_ Horny Zuko sobbed.

"Is something wrong? You're blushing pretty badly," Katara pointed out, staring funnily at him.

_That's four for today's blush count,_ Compassionate Zuko observed sadly.

"I, uh, bought you some clothes in the town today," Zuko stammered. "I wasn't really sure what you liked, so I just… well… yeah."

_Smooth, Zuko, smooth,_ Compassionate Zuko laughed.

_Shut up!_ He threw back as he pulled Katara's clothes out of the bag and onto the bed. She got up out of the chair, looking interested as she went through the clothes.

"These must have been expensive, they're so soft!" She exclaimed, rubbing a dress against her cheek to feel the soft fabric. "It feels like silk!"

"It is," Zuko informed her. She looked surprised, but very happy.

"Thank you very much, Prince Zuko," Katara said thankfully, bowing deeply. "Wait—what's this?" Katara had picked up a pair of the panties. "Uh… Did you pick these out yourself?" She asked in a very small voice, blushing slightly.

Suddenly Zuko felt very, very red. "Er, yes. I have to speak to Uncle now!" He said quickly, practically flying from the room. True to his word, Zuko headed straight towards Uncle Iroh's residence. He had just one question for the old man as he entered the room and joined him for tea.

"Uncle, what is 'lingerie'?"


	10. The Talk

Previously on _Superstition_:

After an embarrassing encounter with a bathing Katara, Zuko goes into a port town to buy Katara some clothes. While in the store, Zuko is teased by the storeowner, picks up a new word, and has panties thrown at him. Later he returns to the ship, give Katara her clothes and heads up to talk to his uncle, with just a single question on his lips:

"Uncle, what is 'lingerie'?"

* * *

**Chapter 10 – The Talk**

* * *

"Uncle, what is 'lingerie'?" Zuko asked.

Iroh promptly spit out his tea. Zuko gave him a look of annoyance as he sat down at the table across from the old man.

"Stop laughing, Uncle!" Zuko protested angrily.

"You really don't know what it is, then?" Iroh sputtered, laughing hysterically.

"Where would I have learned a word like that?" Zuko deadpanned, resisting the urge to burn his beloved uncle to a crisp.

"Fine, fine," Iroh said, his laughing starting to die down. "Lingerie… how do I explain this. Remember when we had the birds and the bees talk a few years back? When a man and a woman love each other very much, they do this thing where they take off all their clothes and the man—"

"YES!" Zuko yelled, panicked. "I remember! I remember! No need to review! Just tell me what lingerie is!"

"Ah, yes, my point. Sometimes, the woman isn't naked! She wears something called lingerie, which is like sexy clothing, but minus the clothing part. It's typically transparent, or doesn't really cover anything important. I have some in my closet if you'd like to see! Or perhaps you would like to buy some for Miss Katara? I can think of some excellent choices for her to—"

Suddenly, pictures began flashing through Zuko's mind, courtesy of Horny Zuko. _Yummm, she'd look good in that, wouldn't she?_ Purred Horny Zuko, practically drooling at the thought of Katara in lingerie. Zuko could feel himself blushing, so he cut off his uncle before any more could be said. And before he got a nosebleed.

"That's enough!" The banished prince practically screamed. "I understand! And I certainly don't want Katara—" He was cut off by an urgent knock on the door.

"Prince Zuko, sir!" Came a panicked sailor's voice from the other side of the door. "Problems on the main deck, sir! Please hurry, sir!" Zuko sighed and, with a last glare at his uncle, opened the door and left with the sailor. Iroh smiled to himself, another fantastically mischievous plot forming in his head to get Zuko and Katara together. _The poor boy works himself too hard_, the old man reasoned. _He really does need a girlfriend._

Suddenly, the proverbial light bulb lit up next to his head as Iroh's idea began to take shape. He almost ran to his room to check his closet for anything that might fit Katara.

Meanwhile, up on the top deck, Zuko was considering a very delicate and disturbing question in his mind. Why _did_ his uncle have lingerie in his closet, anyway?

* * *

Katara spun around in front of the mirror, delighted that her dress flared up when she twirled like that. She wasn't sure why, but there was just something fantastic about the way some dresses and skirts flared up whenever you moved in a circular motion. She was wearing the soft blue dress that Zuko had brought her, along with her own new underclothes now. She was surprised to find that she kind of missed the space the boxers provided, but it was kind of nice to be in her own form-fitting clothes again. She was still spinning around in front of the mirror when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" She called, a happy smile still on her face. The door opened slowly and in walked a very tired-looking young man. "Hello, Prince Zuko!" She said cheerfully.

". . ." Zuko couldn't even speak.

_Daaaaaamn,_ commented Horny Zuko. _She looks hot!_

For once, Compassionate Zuko and Sensible Zuko didn't disagree.

The dress wasn't low cut, but had a sweeping circular curve below Katara's neck. The sleeves were long and flaring, falling just past her fingers. The dress hugged all her curves but wasn't too tight at all, and it fell down to her ankles. He noticed now that the dress wasn't just a solid blue, but more of a blue tie-dye. She looked… amazing.

"What do you think?" She asked him happily, spinning around yet again. "I love it!"

"You look… nice," Zuko finished lamely, completely aware that the word didn't even begin to do her justice. Katara beamed at him.

"Thank you!" Katara exclaimed.

"You're welcome," Zuko mumbled, blushing. "I'm glad… you like it…" He kept mumbling. What was it about this girl that made him so tongue-tied?

_Maybe it's the fact that she's beautiful?_ Suggested Compassionate Zuko helpfully.

_Perhaps,_ Sensible Zuko said, not arguing but not letting himself agree either.

_Or maybe the reason you're so tongue-tied is that you keep imagining her in lingerie? Or better yet, with_out_ lingerie…_ Horny Zuko grinned. Zuko squirmed. Suddenly, he remembered something. He reached deep into a pocket, and pulled out something that was cupped between his hands so Katara couldn't see it.

"That reminds me," he said nonchalantly, still not allowing Katara to see what he was holding. "I have something else for you, I think it'll go well with that dress." Maneuvering to be behind Katara, he reached over her shoulders and pulled something she couldn't see around her neck, fiddling with it in the back. Katara gasped as she turned to the mirror and saw her mother's necklace clinging to her neck.

"My mother's necklace!" She cried, bring her fingers up slowly as she walked towards the mirror, as if she was unsure it was real. She ran her fingers over it in front of the mirror, her eyes bright with tears. He briefly wondered why she looked like she was about to cry when, suddenly, she turned around and in the blink of an eye, Zuko found two blue-clad arms wrapped around his neck and Katara's face buried in his chest. "Thank you so much, Prince Zuko! You have no idea how much this necklace means to me!" Her arms tightened around him, and instinctively he wrapped his own arms around her waist, unconsciously pulling her closer to him. The pair stayed that way for a few moments until, lo and behold, someone knocked on the door.

_Dammit! _Swore Horny Zuko. _I really liked this! Damn all door-knockers!_

Blushing slightly, Zuko moved away from Katara, who was blushing as well.

"What do you want?" He asked irritably as he opened the door.

"A p-package from R-Retired General Iroh, sir!" Stammered an obviously flustered young sailor. Zuko snatched the small box from the man without so much as a 'thank you' and slammed the door. He was about to open the package, but noticed that it was addressed to Katara, and not himself.

"Oi, it's for you," he said, tossing her the box. She looked startled and almost didn't catch the box.

"For me?" She asked, puzzled. "Are you sure?"

"That's what it says on the label, isn't it?" He said impatiently, still upset at being interrupted from his hug.

"I guess so…" Katara said, unsure. "Actually, it says, 'To Katara, with love from Uncle Iroh.'" Zuko rolled his eyes at the old man's antics. Katara opened the box carefully, reading the note laying on top of what appeared to be a folded-up article of clothing. "'Dear Katara,'" she read. "I was talking to my nephew earlier today and deduced that you may be needing this soon. Love, Uncle Iroh.' What do you think that means?" Katara wondered out loud.

_Blink._

_Blink._

_Blink._

Then it clicked.

"Katara! NO! Don't—" But it was too late. Katara had already lifted the cloth out of the box and was shaking it out of it's folds, and was staring at it with blatant confusion.

"Prince Zuko, if I could ask, what the hell is this?" Katara asked, an eyebrow raised as she inspected the skimpy excuse for pajamas. Zuko dropped his face into his hands and moaned. How could his uncle do this to him?

"Er…" Zuko began, unsure of how to explain this.

About five minutes and lot of awkward pauses later, a loud "PERVERT!" could be heard echoing throughout the ship, followed by the slamming of a door, loud stomping up stairs, and the chuckling of an old man.

"So, Prince Zuko, what did Miss Katara think of my gift?" He asked cheerily as Zuko stormed into his room, as if he'd sent her candy or something.

"Take your damn lingerie back!" He hissed, not wanting the rest of the ship's crew to know what had happened. "And if you EVER pull something like that again, I will NOT hesitate to burn you to a crisp!" And with that last threat, he slammed the door shut and went to meditate.

In retrospect, Iroh figured that the whole plan had gone fairly well. At least Zuko hadn't threatened to throw the crates of his favorite tea off the ship, anyway.


	11. Discovery

Previously on _Superstition_:

Zhao realizes that Zuko has his prisoner, so he vows to go 'make him pay'. Aang and Sokka hear his outraged screams and decide to follow the ship.

* * *

**Chapter 11 - Discovery **

* * *

Zhao didn't think that they would ever catch Zuko's ship, quite frankly. He was getting so impatient that several of the crewmembers had been taken to the sick ward for severe burns. Most of these victims were the unlucky coal engine operators, whom had told Zhao that it was impossible to go faster without killing the engine.

Needless to say, the Admiral hadn't liked that much.

Upon first sighting the banished prince's ship on the horizon, a great shout of malicious glee echoed over the water. It was in this manner that Aang and Sokka were awakened that morning.

It had been almost a week since Katara had been kidnapped, and the majority of that time had been spent following this Fire Nation ship across the sea, placing blind faith in the hope that this ship would lead them to her. In reality, both Aang and Sokka knew there wasn't much else to do other than follow it. They didn't exactly have any other leads than the knife, and if the angry shouting days ago had been any indication, Zhao was just as desperate to find the girl as they were. It was just a miracle that nobody on Zhao's ship had noticed them in the cover of the fog.

Unfortunately for the two boys and their pet primate, there really wasn't that much to do when riding a giant flying bison over the water for a week. Food was scarce, so they spent much of their time attempting (rather unsuccessfully) to catch fish and other edible marine life. So far, they'd caught mostly fish and drifting pieces of seaweed. The method of catching the fish was a bit harder to figure out at first, since they lacked fishing equipment. Stomachs growling, they had almost resolved to heading back to the mainland for some food, but then Appa had come up with a most unexpected—not to mention unappetizing—solution.

The giant bison had made some bubbles in the water, to put it politely.

The group's food problems had been, for the moment, solved. They used the knife to cut the fish, then they tried to cook the fish by laying a metal pan (where had _that_ come from?) on Appa's back in the sun. They, of course, referred to Sokka alone; Aang was too squeamish to gut a fish, and Momo wouldn't be much help at all. The end result was a pathetic form of sustenance that kind of resembled badly-made sushi. Sort of. But in the end, it was food and it filled their bellies, and with nothing else to do but twiddle their thumbs, the trio spent their time sleeping.

"Did you hear that, Sokka?" Aang asked sleepily as he rubbed his eyes and sat up slowly. "It sounded like that guy from before…"

"Hmm? Yeah," Sokka replied groggily.

"S-Sokka! Wake up!" The younger boy shouted suddenly. "Look, look!"

"What?"

"There!" Aang pointed into the distance. "It's a ship!"

"Yeah, yeah, we've been following that stupid ship for ages now," Sokka complained, not looking.

"There's two ships now!" Aang cried triumphantly, though considerably quieter than the Admiral. "I bet that's the ship Katara's on! We found her!"

Now Sokka was awake.

"What!" He exclaimed, searching the distance with his eyes. "I see it! I see it! Aang, we found her! Yesss!" He shot up and began jumping around, trying to hug his younger companion.

Unfortunately for the young Water Tribe boy, the fish-cooking pan was still on Appa's back as well. And for what wasn't the first time—nor to be the last—he fell headfirst into the icy seawater.

Meanwhile, a plan was forming in the Admiral's head. A devious plan, yes. If everything went well, he'd have the girl, the Avatar, and with any luck, that stupid prince would be out of his way for good.


	12. Fight and Flight

**Chapter 12 – Fight and Flight- and Fire**

* * *

"Miss Katara, would you please pass me the juice?" Iroh asked politely at breakfast that morning. Katara nodded and passed him the pitcher with a smile. Zuko chomped on his roll quietly, watching the exchange. Things had been tense between him and the Water Tribe girl for the past few days, ever since the lingerie incident, but it seemed like they were beginning to go back to normal. Well, as normal as it could be when you kidnap someone. But whatever. The normal-ness was very, very good, according to Zuko.

"Would you hand me the salt please, Prince Zuko?" Katara said quietly, the smile still on her face. Zuko looked surprised that she was talking to him. He blinked once or twice and then reached for the salt. Their fingers brushed softly during the exchange, and it left both their fingers tingling from the contact.

Yep, things were finally getting back to normal.

Until the fireball hit the ship's upper deck.

The ship shook violently on impact. Katara dropped the salt and it spilled everywhere. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered it as bad luck, but suddenly everything was so chaotic that she didn't have time to think about it. Zuko and Iroh exchanged serious looks and immediately sat up, rushing out of the room and up the stairs and down the hall and onto the top deck. Katara did her best to follow without getting lost. Over a week and this ship was still like a damned maze.

Zuko surveyed the scene in front of him with wide eyes and a rising temper. Zhao's ship was freaking firing at him! That could only mean that Zhao knew he had Katara, and wanted her back. Which, if Zuko had anything to do about it, was never going to happen. Ever.

Another fireball came flying at the ship, but fortunately, it missed by a good twenty feet and landed in the water behind the ship and made a rather large, hissing splash as the fire hit water.

_Shit_, Zuko thought angrily to himself. _I should have known this was going to happen. I knew Zhao wouldn't just let his prisoner get away! I'm so stupid! And I don't have time to get a good defense ready… what am I going to do!_

Iroh noticed his nephew's panicked state. The boy was young, it was understandable. He too had been taken off guard by Zhao's straightforward attack on the ship.

"Prince Zuko, if I may suggest…" Iroh started, stopping to see if his nephew wanted his advice or not. The boy said nothing, so Iroh continued. "I would suggest that we face Zhao's ship head-on. It will surprise him, and they won't risk shootjng the catapults so close to their own ship. It will be a fair fight, I think."

Zuko nodded. "Good plan, Uncle." He began to walk away, then paused, as if with an afterthought. "Thank you, Uncle."

Iroh just smiled.

* * *

Zhao glared at the banished prince though his binoculars. Sure, the kid couldn't see him glaring at him, but it sure made Zhao feel better. And that was all that mattered, in his opinion.

But now the stupid runt was turning his ship around! Was he stupid! Zhao shook his head. Poor, poor inexperienced brat. Zhao wasn't sure how he was going to explain this to the Fire Lord, but he was sure he'd think of something. He didn't think anyone would be too concerned about the boy's death either. Especially not his own father.

Wait, why were there no catapults and explosions going on? Something was wrong.

"Admiral Zhao, sir, we cannot fire the catapults!" Cried a terrified young man in fear of being killed by Zhao as he approached. "There's not enough space, we could damage our own ship, sir!" He squeaked.

Zhao closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. So this was the Fire Prince's plan… Well, there was only one thing to do in a time like this. He'd just have to challenge Zuko to a one-on-one fight for the girl.

And he would win, of course.

* * *

"Good plan, Uncle. Zhao has stopped firing," Zuko complimented Iroh. The man said nothing, but nodded and smiled serenely.

"Z-Zuko! What's going on?" Cried Katara, running up to him amidst the chaos and yelling of the crew.

"Katara, you shouldn't be up here!" Zuko yelled angrily. "You could get hurt!"

"I… I didn't know what to do!" She whispered, tears in her eyes.

_You made her cry, you idiot!_ Protested Compassionate Zuko.

_You won't get nothin' if you're mean to her! _Horny Zuko said wisely.

_Be nicer, be nicer!_ Sensible Zuko advised.

"Katara—" Zuko began. He was promptly cut off as something heavy landed on the ship behind him. The ship trembled and they lost their balance. Katara fell forward into Zuko, who caught her instinctively around the waist. She grabbed onto him, her arms winding around him as well to catch her balance.

"Get off her!" Yelled a very familiar voice.

"Sokka?" Katara whispered, raising her face from Zuko's chest, unbelieving.

"Let my sister go!" Sokka cried, jumping off of Appa. The ship's crew was staring wide-eyed at the giant flying bison, and clearing the way from it. Nobody wanted to get in the way of _that_ thing. A few of the braver crew members, however, attacked Sokka as he jumped from the back of the giant animal. And then suddenly, something was coming off the bison, so fast it could have been nothing more than a blur. It took less than two seconds for Aang to cross the width of the ship with his winged staff, and he landed harshly on the deck in front of Zuko and Katara, dropping into a fighting stance. Zuko slowly unwrapped his arms from around Katara.

"Katara, you should stand back," he advised, giving her a serious look.

"W-wait! Don't fight! You can't hurt each oth—" She cried, looking horrified.

"Stand back, Katara," Aang said quietly. There was something in the boy's voice, so serious, so hostile, so deadly and terrifying that she just had to obey. She involuntarily took several steps back, staring at Aang. Where was the carefree twelve-year-old she knew and loved?

"Katara," Aang asked suddenly. His voice was scaring her, and his eyes were glaring straight at Zuko, who was returning the favor. "Did he touch you?"

"What? Zuko? No, he never-!"

"Don't lie, Katara!" Aang said softly, his venom towards the prince increasing as he slowly moved closer.

_What is wrong with Aang!_ Katara thought, panicked. _I've never seen him like this!_

"I'm glad you could make it, Avatar," Zuko said coldly, his voice equally malicious. "I've been waiting for you…"

* * *

Aang was angry. So, so angry. How dare Zuko! How dare he touch Katara like that! Katara was his and his alone! They were always together, always, and Zuko had taken her away from him. He would _not_get away with this.

He agilely dodged Zuko's blast of fire, ducking low to the ground and sending a shock wave of air towards the scarred boy.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that Zhao had been the one to kidnap Katara initially, and that it had been partially his own fault that Katara had been taken, and that Zuko had only caught her and wasn't doing anything bad to her. But he was _holding_ her like that, they were so close, and Katara _wasn't bothered by it_…

Aang was advancing on Zuko, and he was so angry that his spite fueled him into action, into flying kicks and moves he didn't even know he could do, fast and strong and he _would beat Zuko…_

He had no right. Zuko should never have touched her. Ever. Katara was his. She was his and his alone. His, his, his his _his hishishishishishis—!_

Katara screamed.

* * *

The moment he heard Katara's scream, Zuko was done fighting. Later on he would note how lucky he was that he and the Avatar had had the same reaction, or else the boy could have killed him right then and there, in one shot. He and Aang had both completely stopped at that moment and searched frantically for Katara with their eyes.

"Ooh, don't make that face," Zhao teased them, smirking smugly. He was standing less than twenty feet away from them, and had one arm wrapped around Katara's waist, pulling her against him tightly. His other arm draped across her neck, holding a knife at her throat. "You'll scare the lady. Now just surrender, Avatar, and I might let your pretty little girlfriend go."

Aang and Zuko both took an involuntary step forward.

"Katara," Zuko growled, his eyes wide with fear for the girl. He couldn't do anything, anything at all, it was all up to the Avatar, and if he didn't hand himself over…

He didn't want to think about it.


	13. Fleeting Courage

**Chapter 13 - Fleeting Courage**

* * *

Katara was on the verge of being lifted up by the head, since Zhao's arm was under her chin and he was so much taller than her. Her head was tilted to one side, trying to get as far away from the knife as possible. She was shaking, and you could see the fear in her eyes. She was practically begging them with her eyes, _don't let him hurt me, don't let him hurt me again!_

"You'd better make up your mind fast, Avatar," Zhao taunted, grinning, his eyes wide with sadistic pleasure in the scene in front of him. He moved the knife so it just touched Katara's neck. She whimpered as Zhao trailed it lightly across the side of her neck, leaving a thin trail of red on her skin that began to spill tiny drops of bright red blood down her neck and onto her shoulders and staining her dress and Aang just couldn't take it, he had to do something—

"Aang, don't!" Katara cried suddenly as the boy took another step towards her.

"Zhao," Zuko growled. He was furious. Here he finally had the chance to get the Avatar, capture him and bring him back to his father, and then Zhao had to go and ruin it by showing up! Why did that damn bastard have to ruin everything!

"Oh, what's wrong, _Prince_ Zuko?" Zhao teased. "Upset that I could kill your pretty little friend and there's nothing you can do about it?" He delicately moved the knife just a little closer to her already bleeding jugular vein.

"I'm warning you, Zhao, get your hands off her!" Zuko growled.

"Or what, _my liege_?" The older man taunted. "What do you think you can do when I have a hostage?"

Katara whimpered as Zhao slid the knife across her throat again over the same spot, just hard enough to draw blood again.

A slight wind picked up.

More of the crimson liquid trickled down her neck, hot and sticky.

The sails were rising and the water around the ship was crashing in all directions.

She was shaking.

But not as much as Aang.

"_Get… your… hands… **OFF HER**!_" He yelled, projecting himself towards Zhao with a burst of air. It was like being in a hurricane, with air and objects flying everywhere. Aang's eyes were nearly glowing with the pale blue light of his powers, and every arrow mark on his skin was illuminated, giving him the appearance of being encased in moonlight. Zuko shielded his face from the wind and tried to watch what was going on.

Aang had moved in a flash, but Zhao hadn't wasted that second. The admiral had removed his arm from Katara's waist and used it to send a fireball towards the boy. Aang didn't dodge it. There was an explosion as air and fire collided. Katara was terrified. Could Aang have lived through that? Was he okay? Was he burned?

"Aang!" She screamed as he emerged from the explosion, burned and cut up and bloody in some spots—but alive. With just one arm around her neck, she tried to break away from Zhao. She shot sideways, away from the knife, trying to knock his arm away at the same time. If she could just get behind him—

"Bad move, little girl!" He yelled, spinning around and delivering a forceful blow to her stomach. Katara practically flew backwards, hitting the metal railing hard and collapsing to the ground.

"Katara!"

She managed to open her eyes just a bit, finding herself on level with the ship's steel deck. She blinked just once before things started swimming, and then everything went black.

* * *

Katara opened her eyes and found almost complete darkness. Only a single candle lit the room. She was in a bed, and there was a bandage around her neck and one of her hands. And there was someone else in the room.

"Katara."

Her name was like a prayer, whispered and relieving to say.

"Katara."

He grabbed her hand, clasping it in both of his.

Soft, tired blue met fierce, tired red.

_She's okay. She's okay. She's okay._

"I'm so glad… you're okay…"

"Zuko," she whispered faintly. "Where… where are Aang and Sokka?"

The fire prince looked away.

"A-are they-!"

"They're alive."

She was shaking again.

"Where are—"

"Not here."

"Zhao—"

"Not here."

"Where am—"

"Sick ward, my ship."

Katara closed her eyes.

* * *

_"Katara!" They screamed as she hit the ground._

Get up, get up, get up! _Zuko screamed silently in his head. He was overwhelmed by the urge to go to her, consuming him like a the very fire he controlled. The only thing stopping him was the platoon of Zhao's men was circling him. The fire in his hands was as bright as the fiery determination in his eyes as they attacked._

_Chancing a glance at the Avatar and Zhao between a kick and a punch, Zuko caught a glimpse of the boy attacking the admiral. Was that really the same boy? His face looked so different, and there was almost a visible aura of anger and hate surrounding him. Zuko was suddenly glad that he wasn't Zhao at that moment._

_And then, before he knew what was happened, Zhao's men were retreating back to their own ship, and the Avatar and Katara's brother were running and leaping onto the giant bison's back and flying away, and Zhao himself was holding his chest and running as fast as he could back to his ship, and Zuko was there alone, just standing there panting and tired and bloody and tired and in the middle of it all was—_

_Iroh._

* * *

Iroh closed the infirmary door gently, not making a sound. He had gone to check on Zuko, who was watching over Katara as she slept. He thought he would have fallen asleep by now, but it seemed they were both awake and having some sort of serious conversation. It was better not to interrupt these things, after all.

He turned and leaned against the door, sighing as he stared at the adjacent wall. It had been a long day, and several people had died. Their bodies had already been properly taken care of, with their own men wrapped in flags and placed in coffins and ceremoniously sent into the water, and the bodies of the enemy thrown overboard to the sharks.

Nevermind that they were _all_ soldiers of the Fire Nation.

* * *

_The first of Zhao's men had either been smart or well-instructed; they went straight for Iroh. Despite being called the Dragon of the West, he was getting older, and there were a lot of enemies. By the time he was _done _with them, Zuko was already engrossed in a similar fight, and Zhao was fighting the Avatar. Katara's brother, the one called Sokka, was lying in an unconscious heap on the opposite end of the ship near the giant bison. The boy was slightly burnt, but from the distance appeared fine otherwise—simply knocked out by Zuko's men. Several men were trying to take out the bison itself. More than one was knocked overboard by the beast, and the animal seemed to be in pain._

_Katara, he noted with worry, was also unconscious. And bleeding from the neck._

_With a visage of vehement resolution, the Dragon of the West strode towards Zhao. Pulling a hidden knife out of both of his long sleeves, he hurled one each at the Avatar and Zhao. Both just barely missed being completely impaled by the daggers, but neither escaped without injury. Zhao was hit in the chest, but the wound was superficial and bled worse than it really was. The young Avatar was hit in the arm, but the cut wasn't very deep._

_"Get off this ship!" He yelled through the Avatar-induced wind. "Or I'll kill you both!"_

_The wind stopped and Zhao's fire extinguished. One look at the old man's wrinkled eyes told them that he wasn't bluffing. Even in his old age, he appeared to be more than capable of defeating them both, especially in their current states._

_"I'm not leaving without Katara!" The Avatar yelled in rage, grasping the wound on his limp arm with his other hand. Blood was flowing freely from the wound, and it looked like it hurt._

_"Get off this ship," Iroh said calmly. "You will die if you don't stop that bleeding soon, Avatar. Your transportation may not last much longer either. I suggest you and your companion retreat now."_

_"**NO!**"_

_The wind began to pick up again._

_And abruptly stopped as Sokka's hand settled on Aang's shoulder._

_"Aang. We lost. Let's go."_

_"But Sokka! Katara—"_

_"We can't save her like this, Aang. You can't, and I sure can't. We have to go. If we die here, we can't save her."_

_But even as he spoke the words, the older boy looked defeated and broken. His voice cracked as he said, "Aang, let's go."_

_Closing his eyes, the younger boy nodded, looking like he was going to cry. With a last forlorn, apologetic glance at Katara, the pair took off towards the bison and were heading off into the distance._

_Zhao was gone, and his ship was already detached from Zuko's and departing as fast as it could._

* * *

It had been a long day. After the departure of the Avatar and Admiral Zhao, Zuko had carried an unconscious Katara into the sick ward and demanded that the healer take care of her. He had left her side only to take a quick shower, and that had been at Iroh's request. (That particular conversation had gone something like this: "Zuko, you stink of blood and sweat. No wonder she wont wake up." "…")

He could hear the sound of the teenagers talking softly in the room behind him. Smiling sadly to himself, he decided that it was definitely, undeniably and without a doubt…

Time for tea.


	14. After The Storm

Previously on _Superstition_:

It's a three-way fight for Katara! Admiral Zhao attacks Zuko's ship, followed closely by Aang and Sokka. Katara gets knocked out, and Aang is hurt. Sokka, Aang, and Zhao retreat after Iroh enters the scene. Zuko stays with the unconscious Katara through the night.

* * *

**Chapter 14 – After The Storm**

* * *

Katara woke up the next morning to the sound of the rolling sea outside her window, the smell of sea salt, a cup of (cold) tea on the sidetable, and Prince Zuko's sleeping head on her bed. She smiled blissfully to herself. No matter what had happened the night before, the sight in front of her made her forget all of it. Zuko was slumped forward in his wooden chair, his arms folded on the bed and his head resting on top of them.

He looked so… _peaceful_.

It was a nice change. The teenage prince always seemed to have a frown on his face, a permanent glare. She studied his face for a few moments before deciding that it was his eyebrows. Weren't they always scrunched up in the middle of his face? But asleep, the Fire Prince looked calm and untroubled.

She didn't know how long she laid there, content with simply staring at the boy sleeping on her bed. Impulsively, she reached out and brushed two fingers across his unmarred cheek. To her surprise, Zuko's hand grabbed hers and pulled it up to his face. For a moment she thought she'd woken him up, but he appeared to still be asleep. Her eyes and smile softened affectionately as the sleeping boy snuggled her hand against his cheek.

Katara relaxed against the pillow, still watching the sleeping prince. The faint warmth on her fingers was enough in itself.

* * *

"Aang, you're a mess."

"Shuddup, Sokka," the young avatar said half-heartedly. He hardly looked up to fighting at the moment, lying pitifully as he was, bandaged up like a mummy in a sleeping bag on the ground. It wasn't hard to tell that he had been in a bad fight recently. His whole body had been burned, though not as badly as they'd first thought. The numerous cuts and tiny incisions in his skin had been more worrying, since any one of them could easily get infected. Without medicine, it would be difficult to treat any illness.

Sokka himself had fared pretty well, considering. He'd come out of the whole incident with nothing more than a few very minor burns—which he made a big fuss about anyway—and a bump on his head. (Which he also made a big fuss about, but I digress.)

Appa had ended up with some pretty bad burns on his tail and underbelly, and had just barely been able to fly Aang and Sokka back to the shore before passing out. Aang, bloody and beat up as he was, had absolutely _insisted_ that Sokka give Appa treatment first. Over 12 hours later, the giant bison still hadn't woken up, much to the dismay of Momo. The poor creature had fluttered around its larger counterpart while Sokka had taken care of his wounds, and had now settled for resting on the bison's head until he woke up.

The morning after the fight, Aang had woken up, but Appa didn't. The boy was still exhausted to the point of immobility from the amount of power he'd used the previous night, though, which left Sokka and Momo alone in trying to find food, shelter, and drinkable water.

"Geez, Aang," complained a very disgruntled and dirty Sokka two hours later. "I don't know how Katara managed this stuff."

Aang looked away. Sokka sighed.

"Look, Aang. We're alive, and she's alive, and that's all that's important, right?" Aang nodded. "So it'll be okay. We'll get her back."

"Sokka," Aang whispered. "What…what if she doesn't want to come back?"

The taller boy froze. "Whaddya mean, doesn't want to? Of course she wants to be with us!" He said stiffly. "Why would you even say something like that?"

"You saw what happened," Aang said in a subdued tone of voice. "When Appa landed on Zuko's ship, and he caught Katara. She didn't look like she was very bothered by it, did she? For god's sake, Sokka, she had _her_ arms around _him_ too!"

Sokka took a moment to think before speaking. "Katara is my sister, Aang," he said slowly. "I know her. She wouldn't ditch us for some fire bastard."

Aang wasn't so sure.

* * *

Katara didn't know how long it was until Zuko woke up. As far as she was concerned, he could've slept all day, and she still would have been happy just sitting there watching him sleep. Finally, he began to stir, rubbing his gently face against her hand, which was still in his grasp.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Katara said, smiling at him.

"Nng?" Zuko moaned sleepily, his bleary eyes meeting hers then closing again. "G'muhning."

_Mmmurrgle._

Katara laughed as Zuko's eyes shot open. "Hungry much?" She giggled. Was it just her imagination, or was there a faint trace of a _blush_ on the Fire Prince's cheeks?

"Aw, shaddup," he grumbled, though without much conviction. "Zhao attacked during dinner so we didn't get to eat. So let's go get breakfast."

Still holding her hand, Zuko gently tugged her out of bed. She took two steps and froze.

"Zuko. How did I get in these?" She tugged at the fabric of her clothing with her free hand. She was wearing Zuko's pajamas again, instead of her blue dress that she'd been in last night.

"Um… about that…" Zuko began, looking down nervously. "Well, I didn't put them on you, if that's what you're asking."

_It's a damn shame, too!_ Horny Zuko added. Zuko shook his head and led her out the door.


	15. Happiness

**Chapter 15 - Happiness**

* * *

The day after the battle had gone by surprisingly easy and fast. Katara had expected things to be more awkward now, for everyone to be tense. It was a while before she figured it out—_she_ was the only one who was tense and awkward. Upon realizing this, she let herself loosen up a bit, and the day had passed comfortably.

The next day, Zuko & Co. had landed in a small port town in the Earth Nation to restock on supplies, mostly of the medical sort. After all, a battle requires a lot of bandages and painkillers. Fortunately, the worst of the injuries had only been burns, and even then nothing too terrible. Most of the soldiers had nothing more than bumps and bruises, surprisingly. It would seem that even Zhao's men wouldn't kill their own in cold blood. Zuko figured that was more than could be said for Zhao himself.

The ship itself had some damages to be seen to as well, most caused by the Avatar's damn giant bison—if that's what it was at all. Katara had laughed at him when Zuko asked _exactly_ what that strange beast was, and he still wasn't sure if it was really a bison so much as a giant mutant flying beaver.

In any case, Katara's wounds had healed up quite nicely. They hadn't been very deep or serious in the first place, so it wasn't like she was crippled. She would probably have begged Zuko to let her go with him to the village if he hadn't offered, and he knew it. Once upon a time—i.e., a week ago—he would have enjoyed making her beg like the commoner she was. Now, the thought of making her beg him for something made him sick.

It was funny how she was a peasant and he was a prince and he still felt like she had more class than him.

Besides, how could he resist her pleading eyes? The moment she'd heard they'd docked, she'd stood in front of him, clasping her hands in front of her and wearing his too-big red and orange pajamas and giving him the big puppy-dog-eyes look, and how could _anybody_ hope to fight that? Those eyes were like a freaking weapon.

So he asked if she wanted to go with him. Then she'd squealed in delight and practically tackled him in a bear hug. A few of the crew members around stared skeptically, thinking he'd be angry, but the young prince surprised them by smiling softly as he whispered in her ear, "You'd better go get dressed then, eh?"

Twenty minutes later, she was standing beside him in a brightly-colored red dress, practically bouncing in excitement. He was glad to see her so animated, especially since he hadn't let her come off the ship the last time they had stopped in a port. He supposed that it wasn't entirely his fault though, since it had been a rather awkward situation that Horny Zuko still liked to bring up frequently. Anyway, she was here now, and obviously happy.

And if she was happy, he was happy. It was that simple.

It sounded cheesy, and he knew it. But it was true. It was like her happiness was contagious or something. He couldn't comprehend it, no matter how hard he thought about it, and it only happened around her. In fact, Zuko couldn't remember feeling 'happy' since before he was banished from the Fire Nation, and that had been three years ago. The closest he'd ever came to euphoria had been that day he'd learned of the Avatar's return, and even then it was more of a hunter's adrenaline than true happiness.

"Zuko, look!" Katara cried suddenly. He turned around. Cradled in her arms was a tiny kitten.

"Oh lord, Katara," he sighed, frowning at the fluffball without any real spite. "Put that down. It's probably covered in germs and diseases."

Katara rolled her eyes good-naturedly. Some things would just never change. Zuko's pessimism appeared to be one of those things.

Emotions, he supposed as he watched her carefully hand the kitten back to the vendor, were tricky things. After so long of concealing his feelings and wearing a mask of apathy, being able to toss away the veneer and show his emotions felt so… _liberating_. He loved this freedom, this freedom that came with being around Katara, a simple girl who found something as trivial as kittens a reason to be happy.

Down the street a little ways, Zuko found the supply shop he was looking for. While he stepped inside, Katara stayed outside, fingering small souvenir trinkets at a wooden stand not too far away, looking fascinated.

Ten minutes later he had purchased everything he needed, and arranged to have it transported to his ship. Satisfied, he stepped outside.

Katara was gone.


	16. Revelation

Last time on _Superstition_:

Katara and Zuko stop in an Earth Kingdom port to restock medical supplies after the fight. When Zuko is done buying supplies, Katara has disappeared.

* * *

**Chapter 16 – Revelation**

* * *

Zuko blinked.

And blinked again.

She wasn't there. Where could she have gone? Thoughts began racing furiously through his mind.

What if she was kidnapped? What if the Avatar came back and got her without me noticing? What if she ran away?

But what if she really _had_ run away? Would she do that? She'd been alone, after all. He'd trusted her! What if her liking him had all been an act, part of a plot to get away for good?

_No_, reasoned Sensible Zuko. _Katara isn't even capable of something like that. She's too innocent._

_Besides, you can't kiss someone like she did without really liking them,_ Horny Zuko remarked. _You can't fake a kiss like she gave you._

Zuko found this to be a powerful argument. She hadn't run away. That left kidnapping and rescue as options. He was pretty sure that a flying bison wouldn't go unnoticed, though, so that left just one more option.

Katara had been kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Katara found herself in a darkened alley, surrounded by four men and pressed (rather forcefully) against a wall. She had been minding her own business, inspecting a cart of vegetables, when a hand covered her mouth and another grabbed her around the waist, dragging her into an alley teeming with crates and pots full of who-knows-what. Now her feet were barely touching the ground, and she was being lifted by a strong hand around her neck. Said hand was connected to a rather large man, who was grinning maliciously at her and licking his lips hungrily. The three other men were chuckling, but it wasn't a sound of amusement. It scared her, and she shivered visibly.

"Scared, little girl?" The man in front of her growled. "You should be, Fire Nation scum!"

"No, wait—" Katara tried to reason, but the hand around her neck tightened and cut off her air.

_I'm not from the Fire Nation! I'm from the Water Tribe!_ She wanted to scream. _Leave me alone!_

"Shut up!" He snarled, shaking her. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. What would these men do to her? They thought she was from the Fire Nation! And she couldn't even protest that she wasn't!

"Heh, what should we do with her, Jimbo?" Asked one of the men in a low, gravelly voice. "Are we gonna kill her?"

"Yeah! Let's kill the Fire Nation whore!" Another agreed enthusiastically.

"No, better yet," said Jimbo, grinning. "Let's give those Fire bastards something to be scared of!"

Oh, Katara was scared, alright. He was reaching towards her with his free hand—what was in that pot over there?—and she did _not_ like where that hand appeared to be going…

"Ahh!" Jimbo cried, dropping Katara and clutching his head. "You little bitch!" She landed on her feet, hands up in a fighting stance.

"Jimbo? Whasswrong?" Asked the third man worriedly. "You're all wet!"

"She—water—" The large man stuttered, standing up.

"Get her!" Announced the second man decidedly, not bothering to let Jimbo finish his sentence.

"No, stop!" Katara tried, but it was no use. The man pulled out a knife and attacked.

"What the—" The man whispered, confused. His hand and the knife were encased in a layer of cold crystalline.

"Is that… ice?" Asked another, awed. He didn't have time to get a closer look, however, since he was effectively thrown against the side of the alley by a whip of water, followed closely by the man with the knife.

"Bitch!" Yelled the third man loudly, pulling out a knife of his own. Katara whirled around a tried to freeze this man too, but wasn't fast enough. The tip of the knife, coated in a very thin layer of ice, hit her arm. Fortunately, the ice took most of the edge off of the knife, but it still cut through the fabric of Katara's dress and into her skin. She hissed in pain, and a water whip threw the man into a pile with his buddies.

_I got lucky,_ Katara realized after having disabled the four men. _If it weren't for the water—or whatever that was—in those pots, I'd probably be dead right now!_

"Katara?" She looked towards the entrance of the alley, and saw a silhouetted yet familiar figure.

"Zuko!" She cried, running towards him.

"What happened!" He almost yelled, breathless from running.

"Those guys thought I was from the Fire Nation! But how'd you find me?" She demanded. He frowned suddenly, grabbing her arm.

"You just disappeared and I was looking everywhere for you and then I heard yelling and are you hurt because you're bleeding and—"

"Zuko, relax! I'm fine!" Katara reassured the nervously babbling prince. "It's not a bad cut, don't worry!" He closed his eyes and sighed, glancing quickly behind him before drawing the shorter girl into a tight hug.

"I thought you'd ran away," he murmured into her hair. "I thought you'd left me."

She froze. This was the prince of the Fire Nation! He was supposed to be cold-hearted, ruthless Prince Zuko, her worst enemy after Zhao and the would-be captor of her best friend! What was she doing? This was wrong!

_But it feels so right._

"I won't leave." She wrapped her arms tighter around him. "I promise."

* * *

Later that night, Katara was busying herself by taking a much-needed relaxation bath. She needed some time to mull things over.

What was I thinking! I just promised Zuko I wouldn't leave! What if Aang and Sokka come? What will I tell them? Will I stay? What will I do?

Pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand, she unconsciously fingered the cut on her arm with the other. Suddenly, she felt a tingling, soothing sensation under her fingers. Alarmed, she looked down. Water had swirled up to form an intangible bluish bandage around the wound, and the cut itself was closing. Before she could even realize what was happening, the tingling stopped and the water lost its color and fell back into the tub.

Katara frowned. The cut was gone.

_What just happened?_


	17. The Proposition

Previously on _Superstition_:

While Zuko is purchasing supplies for the ship in an Earth Kingdom town, Katara is mistaken as being from the Fire Nation and is kidnapped by some Earth thugs. She does some long-overdue ass-kicking, and escapes with nothing more serious than a cut on her arm. Later, in the bathtub, the cut mysteriously heals itself.

* * *

**Chapter 17 - The Proposition**

* * *

Katara awoke the next morning warm and comfortable and feeling very safe. She had already decided that if there was one plus to being the hostage of a Fire Prince, it was that she always slept well. How could she not, when engulfed in the embrace of a bender to whom heat came naturally? Saying Zuko was hot really had a double meaning, not that she'd ever actually **said**it.

But she figured she thought about it enough to make up for the lack of verbalization.

It was safe to say that mornings were Katara's new favorite time of the day. No more scrounging around for a meager breakfast of whatever berry or nut happened to grow in the area; no more cold, wet, impossible-to-dry Water Tribe parka and braided hair; no more rainstorms waking her in the middle of the night and freezing her to the bone. Now she was served a hot breakfast every morning, wore dresses and could let her hair down, and got to sleep in a warm bed with a hot guy.

The only question was, why hadn't she gotten herself captured sooner?

_But what about Aang and Sokka?_

Katara immediately felt guilty. Here she was living in luxury, while her two best friends were worried sick about her somewhere out there in the cold. Well, not the _cold_, exactly, since it was summer, but it was the general idea that mattered. Besides, she'd just promised Zuko she'd stay here. She nuzzled into his still-sleeping form a little closer. Then the wave of nervous nausea hit.

_What was I **thinking**!_

_How could I promise something like that! Aang and Sokka are coming for me! I can't just say "I promised Zuko I'd stay here," now can I? I can't abandon them when they're working so hard to get me back! I _love_ them!_

_But do I love Zuko?_

Katara wasn't sure if she knew the answer to that question.

* * *

Aang lie on the ground in his sleeping bag, staring up at the slowly brightening sky. He wasn't sure if he was awake or not. He'd been drifting in between the states of sleep and consciousness every night since the fight on Zuko's ship.

How could this happen? Sure, Zuko was attractive, he supposed, but what kind of reason was that for him and Katara to be hugging? Hell, as far as he knew, Katara shouldn't even want to get within shouting range of the banished prince. He may have looked like a young boy, but he really was 112 years old, after all. He was small but he wasn't stupid.

Maybe Zuko was blackmailing her? Threatening her? His mind grasped at every idea like so many loose straws. She hadn't even struggled to get away from him when he embraced her—in fact, she had hugged him back! He just couldn't believe that Katara would so _willingly_ wrap her arms around him!

Because that would mean she was _okay_ with him touching her.

And that was _not_ okay with Aang.

"Aang."

"You're awake, Sokka?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"Same."

The boys were silent for a few minutes, neither having anything to say that the other wasn't already thinking.

"We're gonna get her back, Aang," Sokka reassured the younger boy softly. "Don't worry."

"We need a plan."

More silence ensued. The sun was nearly up over the horizon now.

"Ambush. We'll ambush them during the night. Smoke-bombs and everything."

"Aang, are you serious? We could be killed, or worse, you could be captured!"

The younger boy sat up, his eyes bright with a determination and fury unnatural for such a young boy. "Zuko kidnapped Katara. He could be hurting her. He—"

_**Flashback**_

_They were on Zuko's ship. Zuko slowly unlatched his arms from her small figure and turned to face him._

"_W-wait! Don't fight! You can't hurt each other!" She'd cried, terrified._

"_Did he touch you?" He'd asked._

"_No, he never-"_

_She was lying! He'd just touched her! He wanted her to stop, to come running to him, because she was his, not Zukos._

_His..._

_**End Flashback**_

"Aang, chill. I don't think Zuko would do that. I mean, sure, he's our enemy and stuff, but he doesn't seem like that kind of guy, y'know?" Sokka tried to reason. "Besides, he didn't exactly kidnap Katara, Zhao did—"

"Shutup!" Aang yelled suddenly, his eyes flashing. A slight but detectable wind began to pick up around the campsite. Momo yelped and squealed to hide behind Appa. "She defended him! I don't want her around him!"

Sokka panicked. "Aang, chill out! You're scaring me!"

"Sokka, she's your sister! And Zuko was touching her! And she defended him! She didn't want him to get hurt! She chose HIM over US!" He raged.

"No she didn't, Aang!" Sokka countered, finding himself yelling over the wind. "Calm down, Aang! You're going to turn into your Avatar spirit again! Calm down!" The wind slowly died down, and the slight luminescence of the arrows on the boy's skins lost their shine. Sokka breathed deeply in relief. The young Avatar sat cross-legged on the ground, and Momo peeped up from behind Appa and jumped in his lap.

"Sorry, Sokka," Aang murmured sadly while stroking the lemur's fur softly. Momo purred in contentment. "I'm just worried about Katara. I miss her."

"Me too, Aang," Sokka agreed, sitting down beside the boy and laying a hand on his shoulder. "I miss her too."

* * *

"You know, Katara," Iroh began conversationally over a piece of toast. "Tonight is Music Night. You should come. It has been a long time since we last had a woman sing with us, especially one as pretty as you."

"Actually, Uncle Iroh, I don't sing," Katara said quietly, blushing. "I'm pretty bad."

Though the rest of her company didn't know it, Katara was nervous. Very nervous. She had been ever since Zuko woke up. What if he noticed that the cut on her arm was gone? What if he asked about it? She still hadn't told him about her healing powers. She found her newfound ability a bit scary, actually. She'd never seen anyone heal themselves like that. It was a bit _weird_, really, so she was naturally nervous that someone would find out. Of course, certain old firebending men have a bad habit of ruining tense moments.

"What a coincidence! My nephew is also a terrible singer."

"Uncle!"

"We could only get him to sing in front of us once," Iroh continued, as if the topic weren't something of deep embarrassment for the banished prince. "It was the time I got him drunk-well, the first time, anyway. His voice kept cracking and-"

"UNCLE! THAT IS ENOUGH!" Zuko yelled, his temper getting the best of him. The candles lighting the room flared brightly, and Katara could almost make out a... could it be? A blush?

"So, Katara, what do you say?" Iroh asked, ignoring his fuming nephew.

"I'd love to come," Katara replied, grinning.

* * *

Admiral Zhao was not in a good mood. In fact, he was in a downright bad mood. And as his crew knew well, Zhao tended to be a bit volatile when he was in a bad mood, and that meant steering clear of him.

Unfortunately, this poor soldier had the misfortune of intercepting a messenger pigeon. Of course, by 'intercepting' I really mean 'was landed and pooped upon by some ugly bird,' but that's beside the point. This normally wouldn't be a bad thing, but Zhao was in a bad mood, and those who interrupted their commanding officer when he was in a bad mood usually ended up in the infirmary. Staring nervously at the Admiral's door with the piece of parchment clutched tightly in his hand, the poor man knocked twice on the door.

"What!" Barked Zhao loudly, clearly annoyed to be interrupted during his sulking session.

"You have a letter, sir," the soldier called nervously.

"Well come in and give it to me already!" Zhao yelled. The soldier cringed and opened the door cautiously, carefully placing the parchment on the Admiral's desk. "Leave!" He snarled, opening the letter. The soldier was only too happy to oblige.

As Admiral Zhao read the letter, a smile slowly spread across his face. He immediately pulled out a new piece of parchment and began writing a return letter. He certainly wasn't wasting any time. After all, it wasn't every day you got a proposition like this one.


	18. Lullaby

******Chapter 18 – Lullaby**

* * *

Left alone to find her own sources of amusement in her and Zuko's room, Katara had quite literally unearthed—Zuko was so incredibly organized that it was actually hard to find things in his room!-a few scrolls of seemingly random things, ranging in topic from agriculture to war tactics to Earth Kingdom fashion. She was so busy reading these scrolls, in fact, that she didn't even notice the sun had gone down until she heard the sound of strange music floating into her open window.

At least, she _thought_ it was music. But it wasn't like any music she'd ever heard before. She couldn't recognize a single instrument. The music played in the Water Tribe was always slow and soothing, like a lullaby. Their music was mainly voices aided by a single instrument, if any instrument was used at all. It was difficult to dance to this sort of music, and Katara herself would choose fishing over dancing any day of the week.

This Fire Nation music, she decided as she rolled up the scrolls and all but ran up to the top deck, was fast and always changing, like their element. Perhaps music also took the form of the player's element? Water Tribe music was slow to change, and singers would often sing the whole song with one or two notes. The sounds coming from the scene in front of her jumped from high to low, from loud to soft, with the speed of fire itself.

Several men on the main deck had strange-looking instruments, some with strings and some being blown into and some being struck with stick-like objects. Most of the other men were either singing along to the strange tune or dancing around to it or both. She suspected that more than a few of the soldiers had started drinking long before sunset, judging from the way several in the farther corner of the ship appeared to be leaning dangerously to the side and walking clumsily. Everyone she could see seemed to be having a good time.

"Welcome to Music Night," Zuko said tonelessly behind her. She jumped, not having noticed when he'd snuck up behind her. "Happens every Thursday night. Just an excuse for them all to get drunk and dance around and forget that they're stuck on this ship in the middle of the ocean. Idiots."

"Looks like they're having fun to me," Katara countered, smiling. If Zuko hadn't noticed that the scratch on her arm was gone by now, she figured, then he wasn't going to. Instead of worrying, she set her mind on having fun at this Music Night—and she was going to make Zuko have fun too, whether he liked it or not.

"Prince Zuko! What a surprise! Did you finally decide to take up dancing?" Uncle Iroh came up behind them, arms full of bottles of rum. He held out a bottle to Zuko, but the prince just glared at him. Iroh wisely dropped the offer, turning his attention to Katara. "I apologize for my nephew's rudeness. Zuko has never liked dancing. And what about you? I am glad you could make time for this in your busy schedule," Iroh teased.

"Well, it was hard, but I managed," Katara played along, grinning. She probably would have continued the game with the old man, except for the man who had suddenly sidled up beside her.

"Ummm, Miss Katara?" He asked nervously, rubbing the back of his head. He obviously hadn't had enough of that confidence-booster called alcohol yet. "Would you like to dance?"

"Eh?" She gaped, surprised. "But I don't know how-"

"Go!" Iroh urged, somehow managing to push her forward even with all the booze in his hands. Katara stumbled forward right into the man's waiting arms, and he promptly placed his hands on her waist and led her in a quick dance step across the deck towards the middle of the crowd. It was all Katara could do to not trip over her own feet as she struggled to keep up with the fast tempo and brisk step. Embarrassed and unprepared, it took her a few minutes to get the step down.

_See?_ Katara thought to herself. _This isn't so hard now that I've figured out the pattern. It's fast, but repetitive._

Then the song ended, and another soldier squeezed in and somehow Katara was staring at a new face. Then this song ended, and there was _another _soldier who wanted to dance with her, and another and another. Taken aback by her sudden popularity, she could hardly refuse them, and found herself being shuffled between several men.

"It would appear that the crew has taken quite a liking to Miss Katara," Iroh stated conversationally to Zuko, who was still standing beside him. Zuko hadn't moved after Katara's abrupt departure, and after delivering the alcohol to the intended parties, Iroh had returned and the two had simply stood still watching Katara dance with one man after another. "It has been quite a long time since they danced with a woman, hasn't it, Prince Zuko?"

_Yes, it _has_ been awhile since they danced with a woman,_ Sensible Zuko agreed from the corners of his mind. _They've also been drinking..._

_The hell are you doing! _Compassionate Zuko interjected angrily. _She's probably getting felt up by all your drunk, horny, sex-deprived soldiers at this very moment, and you're just standing here!_

_Yeah! Why aren't YOU the one feeling her up?_ Horny Zuko pointed out.

Zuko's closed eye's twitched sharply in annoyance before the banished prince stalked away from his uncle into the midst of the dancing crowd. Meanwhile, Katara was nearing dizziness from almost an hour of dancing, along with the constant changing of dance partners and the quick steps of the dance itself. She was still being shifted from soldier to soldier to soldier when—

"Zuko?" She cried, surprised to find herself dancing with the aforementioned teenager. For some reason she couldn't comprehend, having Zuko's hands on her waist felt _so_ much different than everyone else's. "I thought you didn't like dancing?"

"I don't."

"Then why—"

"Shut up."

"Hey! I asked you a question!"

"And I told you to be quiet."

"I asked first, you—"

Katara and Zuko promptly became acquainted with the floor.

Later, bystanders would say it was nobody's fault and that neither had been paying attention to their dance steps and that nothing more transpired than two wrong steps at the same time.

In the meantime, however, there was a heated argument taking place on said floor. They were tangled up on the ground, him on top of her and their arms and legs still intertwined. Neither appeared to be making any particular effort to get back up.

"You idiot!" She cried. "Look what you did!"

"You're the idiot, idiot!" He sneered back in an unfitting form of childishness. "You're so clumsy, but I guess that's to be expected of a simple Water peasant!"

"If you're so full of _princely grace_," she spat back, "then how come you tripped me?"

"_You_ tripped _me_!" He whispered vehemently, disbelief etched on his face. He was a _prince_! He wasn't supposed to be losing arguments with Water Tribe peasants! Instead of prolonging the argument, he stood up, and in an effort to preserve what little royal dignity he had left, held out his hand to help her up. She glared at him for a second, then rolled her eyes in amusement and took his hand. To Katara's surprise, once she stood up Zuko placed his hands on her hips again and continued the dance.

The way Zuko had it figured out, he would just keep dancing with the girl for a few more minutes to keep the crew from staring. Besides, she was already smiling at him again, so how could he really stay mad for long? Stupid girl, why was she smiling? He wanted the song to just end already so he could get back to the solitude of his room. Suddenly, the song seemed very, very long.

Then, out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed a few of the, _ahem_, rather _intoxicated_ soldiers staring at Katara with a hungry sort of look in their eyes. Zuko's permanent frown became more prominent, and almost without realizing it, he began dancing towards the door to the lower levels with Katara in tow. By the end of end of the song, he was close enough to the door to grab the girl's hand and all but drag her inside.

"Hey! Zuko, what are you doing?" She protested, attempting (and failing) to regain possession of her hand. "Look, I'm sorry, I know you didn't mean to trip me and I shouldn't have been so mean to you about it—"

"I did NOT trip you!" He spun around to face her, fuming. His face was inches from hers, his eyes boring into hers. She could feel his hand become hot around her own before releasing it, and he was breathing heavily. At his sudden anger, all Katara could do was bite her lip and try not to laugh. "What is so funny!"

Katara burst out in laughter and spontaneously wrapped her arms around his neck. Surprised, the prince stood stiffly as she laughed and hugged him at the same time. "Someone is cranky and needs a nap," Katara announced in his ear, stepping back and grabbing his hand, leading him towards their room with a playful smile. Still confused, Zuko just followed dumbly as she led him inside the cold metal room and closed the door behind them.

"They were looking at you funny!" He blurted out suddenly, taking a new interest in the floor. And was it just him, or was it awfully cold in this room?

"Huh?" Katara asked, previously busying herself with brushing her hair but turning around to face him as he spoke. "Who was?"

"There... those drunk men..." Zuko mumbled embarrassedly. "I didn't like the way they were looking at you."

"How were they looking at me?" Katara questioned innocently, her head tilted cutely to the side as she approached him.

Zuko gulped. In a matter of seconds, Katara had transformed from a stupid, clumsy Water Tribe peasant into a beautiful woman wearing a Fire Nation-colored dress he'd picked out for her.

_You know, _Horny Zuko began pleasantly,_ that dress isn't the only thing she's wearing that you picked out for her..._

Shit! Why couldn't that stupid voice in his head just leave him alone! Damn hormones to hell!

"How were they looking at me, Zuko?" Katara asked again, staring into his eyes and now just an arm's length away from him. Her own eyes, despite her innocent expression and tone of voice, reflected just a glimmer of mischief. She had such pretty blue eyes, hadn't he ever noticed that before? And such long, pretty hair, perfect for playing with and twirling between his fingers. And such a nice figure, he just wanted to reach out and grab her—"Zuko?"

"Like this," he whispered, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her roughly towards himself, pressing his mouth against hers. He ran his fingers through her hair and grabbed her at the small of her back with his other hand, pulling her closer to him. She moaned into his mouth, which just made him kiss her harder.

Katara didn't know how long they were kissing before she felt herself pull away due to an urgent need to breath. "Zuko," she panted, out of breath. Completely drained from all the dancing and kissing and emotion, she dropped her head to rest against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist, squeezing her towards him.

"It's late. We should sleep," he said, more of a statement than a suggestion. He felt Katara nod her head against him. She reluctantly broke away from him, and with a hesitant smile, walked away towards the bathroom. Zuko sighed as she shut the door, nearly collapsing on his bed. What had happened to all his princely self-control? If she hadn't broken that kiss, who knows what he would have done...

Safely away from Zuko, Katara leaned back against the bathroom door and sighed deeply. What was she doing? Zuko was the enemy! So why was she kissing him?

And liking it?

Ten minutes later, Zuko crawled into the already-populated bed. Using his firebending powers, he put out the candles and lie down next to Katara. She was shivering.

"Are you cold?"

"J-just a l-l-little," she replied, teeth chattering. Impulsively, he reached out and drew her towards him again, wrapping his arms around her protectively. Katara snuggled in closer to the warmth his body provided, nestling her body as close as she could to his. Under the blanket of the dark, Zuko felt no hesitation in allowing a triumphant smirk to grace his face.

Katara was so happy. She was so tired, and she had been so cold, but then Zuko had come and made her warm again.

"Zuko?" She asked softly.

"Yeah?"

"I forgive you for tripping me."

Katara sighed happily. Getting Zuko angry made his body temperature rise, and it was like having a heated blanket surrounding her. So nice.

Zuko was left sputtering nonsense to the girl, who was almost asleep in his very, very warm embrace.

Somewhere, not too far away, Iroh grinned and silently praised himself for his ingenuity. Closing off the heat vents to Prince Zuko's room was probably the best thing he ever did for the boy.

Chuckling, he hoped the teenagers didn't die of hypothermia and took another sip of tea.


	19. Plans

Previously on _Superstition_:

Admiral Zhao gets a mysterious proposition from an unknown person. Music Night on Zuko's ship prompts some intimate time between Zuko and Katara, including a passionate kiss before bed. Katara has not yet revealed her curious new healing powers to anyone. A furious Aang vows to rescue Katara the next night.

* * *

**Chapter 19 - Plans**

* * *

Waking up, though once a dreaded time of day for Prince Zuko, had inexplicably become his favorite. Rubbing his thumb affectionately against the soft skin of Katara's stomach—which his arms were currently wrapped around—he breathed in deeply, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. Why hadn't he captured this girl months ago? It was a perfect situation for him; he got to capture the Avatar _and_he got the girl!

_Hah! I may not have captured _you_ yet, Avatar, but I still get the girl!_ He felt like screaming.

Though, once he thought about it, perhaps stealing a woman from a 12-year-old wasn't really all that impressive.

"Zuko," she mumbled sleepily, squinting one eye open to see him. She snuggled closer to him for warmth, since the room was still freezing. "G'mornin'…"

This, he decided, really _was_ the best way to start the day.

"I'm glad you could make it here on such short notice, my liege," Zhao said as he bowed, a smirk gracing his face and a hint of knowingness in his voice. He kissed her hand and continued. "Getting my message and getting here in less than a day, that is quite an impressive feat."

"Some would call it that," the young Fire Nation princess answered, amusement apparent in her voice. "And others would call it _speculation_."

"Call it what you like, Princess. Though some might say that you _expected _me to agree, and had your ship waiting just out of my visibility." The words were spoken innocently enough, but Zhao's eyes held another story.

"Now, now, Admiral, you sound a bit suspicious of me," Azula countered, smiling sweetly at him.

"Not at all, Princess. I prefer to think of it as _speculation_."

The girl's eyes narrowed momentarily before her face regained its trained smile. The message came loud and clear:

_This is a warning, Princess. I'll go along with your plot because it benefits me, but don't fool yourself into thinking that I'm ignorant of what you're doing, that you're smarter than me. Don't even _try_ to manipulate me, or there'll be hell to pay._

Her false smile morphed into a true, malicious grin.

"I'm glad we think the same way, Admiral. Now, shall we begin?"

"Hey, Zuko, can I ask you a question?" Katara asked as he rolled out of bed, grimacing as his bare feet touched the icy iron floor. He didn't make a sound, so she took it as an affirmative sign. "How did you get that scar?"

He froze with his back to her, his stance rigid and defensive. Katara figured this was a _bad_ sign.

"Ah, sorry! I shouldn't have pried—" She began in apology.

"It's fine," he said curtly, cutting her off. "If you want to know, I'll tell you." He turned back to her, finding the girl sitting cross-legged on his bed with hopeful eyes. He crawled back onto the bed and sat down facing her, mentally preparing himself for the story he had known he'd eventually have to tell.

Because he'd known she'd listen.

"Aang, are you sure about this?" Sokka called as the giant bison touched the ground, the boy onboard rolling off.

"Positive," Aang assured him, patting the animal. "You just worry about making those smoke bombs, and leave finding Zuko to Appa and me."

"You haven't found him yet?" Sokka asked, incredulous. "Aang, if you don't find Zuko within the next few hours, we might not be able to get there in time for nightfall."

"I know. I'll find her."

"Don't worry, Aang. She's fine." Sokka patted the boy's back reassuringly. He hadn't stopped talking about rescuing Katara since the night before, and the older boy was worried for his health—both physical _and_ mental, at this point.

"Well, I'm off again," Aang announced as he grabbed an apple and hopped back onto the bison's back. Sokka frowned as he flew into the distance over the sea, and returned his attention to the smoke bombs at hand.

It was truly surprising to Zuko how easily the words spewed from his mouth. They came slowly at first, apprehensive and well thought out, but quickly became rapid and nearly rambling at some parts. Katara sat across from him, silent for the most part, making small noises of surprise and horror and pity at respective points. He wasn't sure how it happened, but somehow by the end of the whole tale, his head was in her lap and she was crying, her tears rolling off her chin and some landing on his cheek.

"Why are you crying?" He asked, reaching up to tenderly wipe the wetness from her face.

"Because you aren't," she answered, the tears still coming. He smiled gently up at her.

"Thank you."


	20. Preparations

**Chapter 20 – Preparations**

* * *

"Sokka! Sokka!" Aang yelled as Appa landed on their makeshift campsite, a huge grin on his face. "I found him! About seven miles northeast!"

"Seven miles?" Sokka cried. "How are we supposed to get there with all this stuff in time? It's already past noon and I'm not done with the preparations!"

"Don't worry, I'll help!" The boy said happily, grabbing a small piece of cloth to finish Sokka's current project. "We have all night to attack! Plus, Katara can help us better now!"

"That's right. Waterbenders are more powerful at night, aren't they?" Sokka remembered. He grinned at the prospect of being reunited with his sister. "C'mon, enough chatting. Let's get to work!"

"We should get breakfast. It's almost eleven-o-clock," Zuko commented without any real conviction, not appearing to be in any particular rush to move his head from Katara's (very comfortable, as it turned out) lap.

"Yeah," Katara agreed, without moving. Suddenly, she began giggling.

"What?" Zuko asked, frowning.

"I was just remembering that time you had me tied up to that pole with the pirates," she laughed. "And I remember being terrified that you were gonna kill me or hand me over to the pirates or something."

Without warning, Zuko moved from lying down and in one fluid motion, flipped over and tackled her into a sprawl on the bed, pinning her wrists down and lying between her legs. He slowly lowered his head to her ear, his warm breath tickling her skin.

"I should have kept you all to myself," he whispered huskily, making Katara's heart skip a beat. He raised his head to look her in the eyes, his face so close to hers that their noses brushes against each other. He graced her lips with a short, light kiss and—

_GRRRMMMBBBBLE_

Zuko's eyes promptly went wide and Katara giggled.

"Hungry, Zuko?" She laughed as his stomach growled again. She could just barely make out the tiniest bit of a blush on his cheeks, and he stared at the ground, embarrassed. Grabbing his hand, she led him towards the dining room, and the starving prince was only too happy to follow.

"My, my, Princess, don't you think that tonight is a bit soon?" Zhao asked, a smirk in his voice.

"Not at all, my dear Admiral," Azula answered, matching Zhao's tone. She took a sip of her tea and leaned back in her chair. "The sooner we attack, the more of an advantage we'll have."

"Eager to complete your mission, Princess?" The admiral asked, turning his back to her. "Or worried you'll lose track of your favorite big brother?"

The girl stiffened, her cup of tea frozen halfway to her mouth and her lips parted. She frowned momentarily, emotions flickering across her face like the flame of a candle.

"Admiral," she began, her voice brittle and steely. "I don't believe that's any of your concern. You just

worry about getting this damn ship to Zuko by nightfall."

"Hit a nerve, have I, Princess?" Zhao teased, his voice smooth as silk. He circled around the table and stood behind her, fingering her hair and moving down to massage her shoulders. "No need to be so _tense_, Princess. Not around me, anyway."

"I'd say _especially_ around you," the princess countered, eyes closed in contentment. "We strike tonight, no arguments. Ohhh, and rub there again, it felt nice."

Behind her, Zhao grinned. Who knew seducing a princess half your age was so easy?

"Pass the jam, would you?" Katara asked absentmindedly over a piece of toast. It was just the two of them this morning, Iroh having already eaten hours earlier. She extended her hand and grasped onto the object Zuko handed to her. Looking down, she commented, "This isn't jam."

"No."

"It's... a dolphin."

"Yeah." Zuko looked down, slightly embarrassed.

". . ."

"...Say something already!" Zuko exclaimed impatiently, looking up to see Katara grinning at him.

"It's wonderful," she told him, laughing. "Where did you get this?"

"Market... the other day..." He mumbled. "I thought you'd like it."

"I love it," she assured him happily, giving the glass dolphin a tiny kiss on the nose.

_I think you deserve one of those,_ Horny Zuko interjected. _Why's the stupid dolphin getting a kiss? You bought it!_

Zuko was, thankfully, rescued from the voices in his head when Katara reminded him, "Zuko, I still need the jam."


	21. Routine

**Chapter 21 - Routine**

* * *

It began just after sundown with a knock on the door.

"Target confirmed, Princess Azula."

The messenger boy scurried out of the room, leaving behind one grinning princess and one smirking man.

And so it began.

It's been said that routine will kill you.

Prince Zuko, despite all his time with Iroh, has never heard this particular aphorism.

The day proceeded as normal. Crew wake-up horn at 7:00 am, breakfast at 7:30, roll call at 8:00. Group 1 takes lunch break at noon, and Group 2 at half past. Dinner at 6:00 pm, and after that was the night shift, which rotated on a weekly basis. The basic routine on all Fire Nation navy ships.

The first strike was during dinner. The booming noises of catapulted bombs echoed throughout the steel walls of the ship, rattling the tables and lights. The soldiers abandoned their dinners and raced to the top deck. The ship's mast was engulfed in flames, along with several barrels of something that had melted and was no longer recognizable. Not too far away was another Fire Nation ship, the unmistakable attacker. They were unprepared, and the enemy was ready and on the offense. They were obviously at a disadvantage.

It's been said that routine will kill you.

It's also been said that Fire Nation soldiers are among the fiercest and most determined in the world.

However, it's never been said that this doesn't apply to banished princes as well.

"I see it, Sokka," Aang said suddenly, breaking the chilling silence that had engulfed the pair for the past hour or so. Tension hung in the air, looming dangerously over the sullen and nervous boys. "I can see his ship."

The older boy held his hand up to his forehead to block the slowly setting sun, peering into the distance. "Yeah, I can see it too." He paused. "Aang, are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Yes," the young Avatar replied without hesitation, his voice strong and steadfast. "She's been gone for a week. I'm not waiting any longer."

"Aang, I miss her too, but I gotta ask…" Sokka started cautiously. "Why are you so determined to get her away from Zuko? I mean, he's not mistreating her or anything."

"You don't know that," Aang answered stiffly.

"Well, I'm guessing she wouldn't have had her arms around him, and she wouldn't have tried to stop you two from fighting, if he was hurting her," Sokka reasoned in a rare moment of rationality.

Aang said nothing.

"Aang."

Nothing.

"Aang?"

The Avatar remained silent, stoically facing the sunset, eyes glowing with the faintest tinge of bright blue.

"Ahh!" Katara cried as the china rattled and her juice was shaken out of her glass, spilling onto the table. "Zuko, what was that?"

"Shit," Zuko whispered viciously, eyes narrowing in pure fury. "Zhao."

Iroh merely closed his eyes, frowning. Zuko dropped his fork and raced up the stairs and out to the main deck, Katara and Iroh in tow. Bodies littered the deck, spilt blood making the steel slippery. The air was a mix of the coppery scent of blood and burnt flesh, lingering and making Katara choke.

"Show yourself, Zhao!" Zuko yelled, whirling around frantically in the dark, his palms filled with fire. "I know you're here!"

"Observant little prince, aren't we, Zuko?" The admiral teased, stepping out of the shadows and into the relative light cast by Zuko's fiery wrath. "But you're not going to live much longer."

"I dare you, Zhao," Zuko spat ferociously. "You know I can beat you in a fight."

"Who said anything about him being your opponent?"

Zuko gasped. "A-Azula?"

"The one and only," she smirked, her palms becoming encased in fire as she stepped out of Zhao's shadow and strode towards Zuko. "Now, big brother, ready to die?"


	22. Sibling Rivalry

Previously on _Superstition_:

Aang and Sokka, finally having located Zuko's ship, are on their way via Appa to rescue their princess. Meanwhile, they've been beaten there by Zhao and Zuko's little sister Azula, a firebending prodigy.

* * *

**Chapter 22 – Sibling Rivalry**

* * *

"A-Azula?" Zuko gasped, his face contorted in confusion.

"The one and only," smirked the girl. "Now, ready to die, big brother?"

"W-wha-huh?" The banished prince stuttered. "Azula, what are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious, big brother?" Her grin widened in malicious glee. "Daddy sent me here."

"Father sent you?" Zuko repeated stupidly. _Why would Father send her here? What's going on?_ "Why?"

Azula giggled, amused. "Why do you think? To kill you!"

Zuko's eyes widened. "No way!" He roared angrily. "I'll have the Avatar in my hands within a week, and then he'll let me come home!"

"Oh, grow up, Zuko! If he really wanted you there, don't you think he'd have brought you home already?"

"He promised!" Zuko cried, distraught. "HE PROMISED!"

The lighting torches lit around the ship and fell with Zuko's emotions. Katara thought the flames almost looked like the rise and fall of the waves in the ocean surrounding them.

"Daddy says you're a failure, Zuko. Not like him, not like me. You're a good-for-nothing loser, a disappointment to the Fire Nation. So naturally you needed to be disposed of," Azula explained cheerfully with a smile, as if she was inviting him to dinner rather than getting ready to kill him.

"SHUT UP!" Zuko screamed, clutching his head. His eyes flickered from side to side in panic, and he was visibly shaking. A single tear escaped from his eye, sliding down his cheek. "SHUT UP! YOU'RE LYING!"

"Now, now, big brother, why would I lie?" Azula asked sweetly, slowly creeping closer to the unstable prince. She clasped her hands behind her back, but Katara could have sworn she looked like she was grabbing something.

"SHUT UP!" Zuko howled, blindly thrusting his hands forward to shoot searing jets of fire at his little sister. She easily deflected the flames with her own barrier of fire.

"Eager to fight, aren't we, big brother?" Azula chuckled, shaking her finger in mock shame. "Let's get started then. I only wish I could have a more challenging opponent."

The second the words left her mouth, she was gone. She was as quick as her element, and twice as dangerous. Zuko stepped backwards impulsively, trying to see where she had gone.

"Zuko! Your right!" Katara yelled to him. Zuko was obviously not in prime fighting condition. Azula's words had taken a visible effect on him. The emotionally battered prince dodged her burst of fire, but just barely.

"Not bad, big bro," Azula commented. "But can you dodge _this_?"

Azula shot two more jets of fire towards her brother, but he easily moved backwards, out of their reach. Suddenly, he doubled over, clutching his stomach.

"What!" Katara cried to Iroh. "Those flames didn't hit him! I saw!"

"You... bitch..." Zuko whispered harshly, his face clenched in pain. "You hid the daggers with your fire..."

"Well, at least your intelligence _might_ make up for your complete lack of skill in firebending," Azula said jovially, holding a finger to her chin in mock thought. "But then again, it might _not_." She grinned, and shot another line of fire at her wounded brother.

"Zuko!" Katara shrieked as she watched Zuko, unable to move before the jet of fire hit him in the chest. He screamed in pain, flying backwards and landing on his back, unmoving. "Zuko!" She tried to run to him, but Iroh's strong arm held her back. "What are you doing! We have to help him!"

"No," said the old man in steady tones. "This is his fight. A fight for honor." His eyes, however, portrayed a different story. Katara could tell he wanted to rush over to his nephew even more than she did.

"Zuko..." Katara whispered. If she couldn't help him, who could?

"Aang, who is that girl?" Sokka practically drooled from Appa's back as they lurked unseen in the water right beside the ship. "She's gorgeous!"

"She's a firebender, Sokka," Aang answered skeptically. "And we're not here for you to pick up girls."

"Right, right. We're rescuing Katara. Got it." Sokka's voice was unenthusiastic. "But seriously, she can't be _that_ bad if she's kicking Zuko's butt, right?"

Aang frowned. "I wouldn't count on it. Look who else is there."

"Ew. That's Admiral Zhao, isn't it?" Sokka said, disappointed. "Aw man, I bet he's her dad or something. There's no way that'd work out." He sighed. "So anyway, how do we do this? Do we just run up and grab Katara and get the hell outta here, or what?"

"Sounds good."

"Yeah, I know," Sokka said proudly. Then he frowned. "Wait. Are you being sarcastic?" He eyed the younger boy suspiciously.

"Nope. Got your smoke bombs ready?" Sokka flashed him the inside of his makeshift bomb-holder, a cheap second-hand jacket he'd crudely sewn many pockets into. Aang flashed his back, and in a rare display of the solely male ability of communication through testosterone, the two took off simultaneously and jumped onto the ship, ready to rescue their own damsel in distress.


	23. The Rescue

Previously in _Superstition_:

Zhao and Azula show up looking for a fight, while Aang and Sokka come to rescue Katara. Azula is trying to kill him, and from the looks of it, she's got a pretty good chance of succeeding. Sokka and Aang are preparing to board the ship and re-capture Katara. Unfortunately, as they are about to learn, nothing ever goes as planned.

* * *

**Chapter 23 – The Rescue**

* * *

Shrouded by the dark and smoke of the fighting firebenders, the boys hadn't had any trouble boarding the ship in secret. And in a dazzling red dress, Katara was hard to miss. Aang _hated_it. She belonged in blue. Always. Did Zuko make her wear it? Or had she agreed on her own? He wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. All he knew was that Katara didn't belong with Zuko.

Suddenly, a jet of flames directed at Zuko shot by, illuminating the two boys for an instant. Aang froze, his eyes wide. He glanced at Sokka, who was also stiff with fear. Chancing a small nod to each other, the two boys continued their silent approach towards Katara. The flame had made it clear, though—this was dangerous. They could get fried to a crisp, or captured if spotted in the fire-light again. A tenser mood replacing the previously somewhat-cheery mood, they snuck closer and closer to their target.

"Prince Zuko!" Iroh cried as yet another painful blow was dealt to his nephew. Perhaps this would make him a hypocrite for stopping Katara from helping him, but he could not stand by and watch his adoptive son be killed in front of his very eyes. It may tarnish the prince's honor to help him, but Iroh hadn't expected Azula to be so strong, and Zuko was losing badly.

_After all_, he asked himself, _what good is honor to a dead man?_

Rushing forward as fast as his aging body would let him, Iroh began a basic firebending move. He was unable to finish it.

"Don't even think about it, Iroh," snarled Zhao, holding a knife to the old man's throat. "Your opponent is _me_."

"Get out of the way, Zhao," the old man growled, delivering a swift blow to the Admiral's gut and knocking the knife to the ground. "My nephew is in trouble."

"I'd say _you're _the one in trouble, Retired General," Zhao smirked, obviously set on not letting Iroh interfere with the siblings' fight. Iroh sighed heavily, and moved into the basic firebending position.

They were about ten feet away from Katara when things started going wrong.

"Too slow, big brother!" Azula crowed as she sent Zuko flying into the metal wall of the ship's tower. He collapsed to the cold steel floor, panting. He was covered in blood and burns, cuts cauterized by flames and slit open again in a cruel, painful cycle. Katara couldn't stand to watch helplessly anymore.

"Leave him alone!" She cried, rushing forward to stand in front of his broken body, arms spread wide as if they could stop Azula's attacks. "He's your _brother!_"

"_Katara…_" She could have sworn she heard Zuko whisper hoarsely. "_Don't… Katara… stay back…_" She ignored him.

"That failure is no brother of mine!" Azula screamed, suddenly angry. Her sadistic pleasure in fighting had disappeared, replaced with a furious passion and expression. "He's not a brother or anything else to me! Now move!"

"No!" Katara growled, stiffening her body for an attack.

"Get out of the way!" Azula screeched, infuriated. "Get away from him or I'll burn you along with him!"

"Then I guess you'll have to, because _I am not moving!_" Katara answered vehemently, standing her ground. Azula's face scrunched up in ferocity, and she moved into a lethal-looking firebending stance, her arms moving with fluid grace, preparing for the jet of flames that would end everything.

Katara didn't move.

_She isn't moving._

_She isn't moving._

_Why isn't she moving?_

_Why is she protecting him?_

_Katara…_

_  
_

"_DON'T TOUCH HER!_" Someone screamed, their voice full of raw fury and power. In the blink of an eye, Azula was flung into the railing of the ship as easily as a rag doll. Katara would have missed it if she'd just blinked for an instant. The incredible burst of air that saved her life…

"A-Aang?" She whispered softly, turning her head to see the boy. Standing in the slowly dissipating smoke, with his arms still outstretched and his eyes and body glowing with the faintest tint of blue. Her knees gave out, and she collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily in relief and shock. "Aang…" Tears were leaking from her eyes as she stared at him in gratitude and happiness and comfort and so many other emotions he couldn't name. He rushed forward, throwing his arms around her, clinging to her shaking form and whispering calming things in her ear.

"Don't worry, Katara. I'm here. Nobody's gonna hurt you now. I'm here. You can come back with us now. Don't worry, I'm here."

He tried to ignore the fact that she wasn't hugging him back.

"Where's Sokka?" She asked, and then there were two pairs of strong arms embracing her, burying their faces in her hair and whispering how good it was to have her back.

She didn't move.

"We have to help him," she whispered, her voice cracking.

Aang froze, then withdrew himself from the group hug. "Who?"

"Zuko."

Iroh lie on the ground, his breathing hard and elaborate. He cursed himself over and over, finding himself almost unable to move. The moment the Avatar had disabled Azula, Zhao had finished Iroh with an unexpectedly strong jet of fire. Defending himself from the attack had used up the last of Iroh's strength, and the old man had collapsed. Zhao, knowing the retired general was down for the count, had rushed to Azula's aid.

As blessed blackness filled his vision, he had his last conscious thought.

_Zuko… I'm sorry…_

For a moment, no one said anything.

"Are you _crazy_, Katara?" Sokka roared incredulously. "He _kidnapped _you! That's why we're here! And now you want to _help him_!"

"Yes."

"No," Aang interrupted, his voice firm and steady. "We're leaving him here. C'mon, Katara. Let's go."

For a few seconds, she sat there unmoving, and Aang thought she wasn't going to come. He frowned, but then she slowly rose to her feet. He turned around, feeling triumphant as he strode back towards Appa.

"I'm not leaving him here." Her voice was cracking, but it was confidant and final. Aang spun around, angry and confused.

"Why the hell not!" He cried.

"He'll die if we leave him here, Aang."

"Who cares!" He yelled. "We're leaving him here, and that's fina—"

"Please," she pleaded, her eyes begging him to acquiesce.

Sokka sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Slowly, he began walking towards the fallen fire prince and their own water princess. He kneeled beside the unconscious young man, checking his pulse and inspecting his injuries.

"He's hurt pretty bad, and he's lost a lot of blood, but we can save him," Sokka concluded, adding, "But only if we hurry."

Katara smiled gratefully at him, thanking him silently with her eyes.

"It's your call, Aang," Sokka called to him. "You're our ride, so it's your call."

Katara turned her eyes to him, her big soft blue pleading eyes, and how could he say no? He stared at the ground, breaking their eye contact. "Fine. But all we're doing is patching him up and leaving him, got it?" He said, obviously unhappy.

Katara smiled, and even Sokka looked relieved. Gingerly, Sokka hoisted the prince up over his shoulder, and carefully carried him to Appa's saddle. Aang was in a bad mood, and he was just about ready to leave, when the smoke cleared just enough to reveal the body of an old man.

"Iroh!" She cried, rushing to the old man's side. She checked his pulse, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she found it. She shook him gently. "Uncle Iroh? Wake up, you have to wake up! Please!"

"Miss… Katara?" Iroh opened his eyes lazily, confused and pained. "Where's… Zuko…"

"Don't worry," she comforted him in a soft voice. "We're gonna take care of him. He's gonna be okay. Now, we have to get you out of here."

"I'm an old man, Katara," he wheezed. "Leave me here."

"No way!" She told him forcefully. "Get up! We're leaving!" She grabbed his arm, and as gently as she could tried to wrench him up from the ground. "Aang! We're taking him too!" Practically dragging Iroh along with her, the pair made it to the flying bison.

With the whole lot together, Aang none-too-happily muttered, "Yip yip."

Zhao cursed violently at this sudden turn of events. He hadn't expected the Avatar to take Zuko and Iroh with him. But while it was troublesome, no one could say that he had been unprepared. Smirking grimly, he removed a scroll from his pocket and quickly tied it around an arrow. Picking up a discarded bow, presumably belonging to a now-dead soldier of Zuko's, he shot the arrow towards the bison. Though he wasn't the best shot, he figured he had a pretty good chance of hitting the animal.

After all, how could _anyone_ miss a target like that?


	24. The Healing

Previously on _Superstition_:

Aang and Sokka come to rescue Katara, only to find that her captor is already engaged in a fight with his own little sister. And he's getting his ass kicked. Just as Azula is about to fry Zuko for good, Katara steps in. Aang freaks out and knocks Azula out with his airbending. Iroh is hurt by Zhao, and Katara refuses to leave without him and Zuko. Finally, Aang aquiesces and the group takes off on Appa-but not before Zhao manages to strike the bison with an arrow and a message.

* * *

**Chapter 24 – The Healing**

* * *

It was still dark when they reached the shore and their temporary camp. It was a clear, starry night, and the nearly-full moon illuminated the water and earth. The crisp night provided the perfect complement to the events of just an hour earlier. The ride from the ship to shore had been utterly silent, broken only by the sounds of the ocean beneath them and Zuko's heavy, painful breaths.

Katara and Sokka, using torn bits of cloth torn from the boys' smoke bomb jackets, had managed to stop most of the bleeding, but the fire prince was still in bad shape. His face was distorted in pain, and every few minutes he would moan in pain.

Iroh, to his credit, had insisted that his nephew be fully tended to before himself. The old man had sat quietly in the corner of the saddle, watching the siblings care for the boy. He wasn't hurt particularly bad anywhere, just a few minor cuts and burns. His injuries weren't life threatening. He was just exhausted, his strength completely drained from fighting Zhao. He sat silently, watching and praying for the only living person in the world that he still considered family.

Upon Appa's landing, Katara and Sokka had gently lifted Zuko by the arms and carried him between them, his legs dragging slightly on the ground. Wordlessly, Aang hopped lightly off of the bison and disappeared into the thick woods alone. Katara and Sokka exchanged worried glances as he left, but proceeded to lay Zuko down on a sleeping bag.

Within minutes, the Avatar had returned with an armful of sticks, and after throwing them unceremoniously into their makeshift fire pit, sat down sullenly on a large rock. Momo, having awoken when Appa landed, ran up to the boy. He could sense the tension in the air, and his ears were flattened in caution as he approached Aang. He looked angry and depressed, so the lemur jumped on his lap and curled up, purring. Aang slowly reached his hand towards Momo's head and began stroking his fur methodically and rigidly, his eyes glued to Katara.

At the moment, Sokka was attempting—and failing—to light a fire by striking a flint. After several unsuccessful tries, Iroh managed to walk to the fire, sitting on another boulder.

"Allow me," he said. Sokka stood back, and the old man gracefully lit the wood with his hands.

"Wish I could do that…" Sokka muttered under his breath. Iroh smiled.

Aang said nothing.

Azula slowly opened her eyes, blinking slowly.

"Good morning, Princess," Zhao greeted her, smirking. "Did you have a nice nap?"

"…What the hell happened?" She asked, frowning in frustration. "I was winning! And why does my side hurt so badly?" She clutched at her side, fingers scrabbling to lift her shirt, revealing a large, colorful bruise. "What the hell!" She exclaimed.

"The Avatar showed up," Zhao stated simply, expecting those four words to explain everything.

"Oh." She paused. "I was attacking Zuko. He's an enemy of the Avatar. Why'd he attack me?"

"You threatened the girl."

A whirlwind of emotions flickered across the princess's face, none of them comprehensible to Zhao. She took a moment before speaking. "I see."

"Why didn't you just fry her along with Zuko?" Zhao asked innocently enough, though Azula could see the underlying implications of the question.

"I didn't want to," she announced childishly, pointedly looking at the floor beside the bed she was lying on.

"Meaning, you couldn't do it," Zhao said, his smirk growing. "You couldn't kill her, could you?"

Azula said nothing.

"Fire Lord Ozai isn't going to be happy about this, you know."

She winced.

"What are you going to tell him?"

She closed her eyes for a moment, choosing her words carefully.

"I will simply tell him that there were unexpected complications. He won't want details anyway."

"I see," Zhao replied, bemused. He could see the girl hadn't grown up in a royal court for nothing—she had the wits and intelligence of an army commander, not to mention the looks and manipulation techniques to boot. Nodding courteously to her, he stood up and left the room.

_You know what they say, Admiral,_ Azula thought to herself as Zhao closed the door behind himself. _Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer._

Katara sighed, closing her eyes and opening them again. It had been two hours since the group had settled down for the night, and she had yet to fall asleep. There was something bugging her.

Checking one last time to make sure no one else was awake, she quietly rolled out of her sleeping bag and ran down to the water's edge, the sand silencing her footsteps. Filling her canteen with water, she trotted back to the fire, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to attempt.

Kneeling next to Zuko's sleeping form, she bended a stream of water from the canteen into the air. Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on a visible cut on Zuko's chest. His shirt had been removed, but most of his upper body had been covered in bandages. She manipulated the water to cover the cut, and placed her hands in the liquid. Suddenly, the water became soothingly cool, and a soft blue light emitted from the water, illuminating her hands and body, as well as Zuko's.

Gasping in surprise and wonder, she focused even more concentration on the thought of healing. Within seconds, the cut itself had healed, but the water continued to spread itself over Zuko's body as if it were a being of its own. The light grew, and she could feel the healing power leaving her and entering Zuko. She was filled with the intense desire to _heal_, and she pushed more energy out of herself and into him. To her amazement, she could actually _see_ his wounds slowly healing beneath the cool azure light. It was fascinating, exhilarating.

Finally satisfied with Zuko's healed body, Katara withdrew her hands from the water, finding herself out of breath from the exertion. The blue light dissipated, and the water, no longer controlled by a bender, slid off the boy to the ground, dampening the sleeping bag. Katara was relieved to hear the boy's breathing return to a more normal pace. Drying her hands on her tunic, she smiled triumphantly.

_I did it! _ She thought excitedly. _I healed someone! I did it!_

Lying back down in her own sleeping bag, she suddenly wondered if she should tell Aang and Sokka of her newfound healing abilities. She knew she should—it just felt wrong to hide something that important from them. In any case, she knew they would notice Zuko's wounds had mysteriously healed overnight. There was no getting around it. She decided to tell them in the morning, once everyone was awake and calm. She closed her eyes and fell asleep with a smile.

Blissfully unaware, she never noticed the pair of dark gray eyes watching her from across the fire.


	25. Awakening

**Chapter 25 – Awakening**

* * *

Surprisingly, the first one to wake the next morning was Sokka. Knowing how unusual this was, he had his mind set on going back to sleep and restoring the natural order of things. And had this been any other day, he might have done just that. Today, however, they had two injured… two injured _what_?

Not allies, he knew that. Zuko had been their enemy since the day they met Aang, the day the Fire Nation had raided their poor village. He had kidnapped Katara, and was trying to capture Aang. Zuko was definitely not an ally.

Enemies, perhaps? It sounded right. With all the evil deeds Zuko had done—kidnapping his baby sister topping the list, of course—he could rightly be considered an enemy. But if he was really such a bad guy, then why would Katara want to save him? He was going to get a very, very detailed account of Katara's time as a hostage very, very soon. And once he knew what had happened on his ship, he'd proceed to kick Zuko's pansy fire ass.

Or he would have, if the kid hadn't already gotten that ass kicked by his own little sister. He couldn't even begin to imagine the embarrassment he'd feel if he got whipped by Katara. It was almost enough to make Sokka feel bad for the guy. Almost.

So if Zuko and the old man weren't allies or enemies, then what were they?

_People_, he decided. They had two injured people.

Having gotten the ever-so-rare brain activity over and done with, Sokka scuttled out of his sleeping bag and cautiously approached the sleeping fire prince. His breathing had become steady overnight, and he looked a lot better. In fact, he looked pretty good for someone who was on the verge of death just hours ago. Frowning, he kneeled on the ground in for closer inspection.

"What the—" Sokka stuttered, his eyes widening in realization. "Katara, Aang, wake up! You gotta check this out!"

"Whaddya want, Sokka?" Aang grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "It's early."

"Seriously, come see this!" Sokka exclaimed impatiently. Moaning sleepily, Aang rolled out of his sleeping bag and joined him. His eyes narrowed the moment he laid eyes on Zuko.

He was healed. Well, for the most part, anyway. Most of the cuts and slashes on his body had disappeared overnight, with only a few scars remaining as proof that Zuko had been in a fight at all. The boy looked healthy and relaxed.

"That's not just amazing, it's scary! Nobody can heal themselves that fast!" Sokka was blabbing to Aang, his mouth moving a mile a minute with crazy explanations. "Maybe he's an alien, or half-fish! Do fish heal fast? I dunno, but—"

"Katara."

"Eh?"

"Katara did it," Aang said in a stony voice. His eyes wandered to the girl in question, still sleeping peacefully in her sleeping bag.

"You're crazy, Aang!" Sokka laughed. "There's no way Katara could—"

"I saw her."

Sokka paused, frowning. "Wait. Are you sure you weren't dreaming or something?"

"She was kneeling next to Zuko last night. She did something with her waterbending, it made her hands glow blue. Now we wake up and Zuko's healed, and you expect me to think it was something else?" Aang explained.

"I think I'll ask her myself," Sokka said apologetically, rising to go wake his sister. "Katara, hey, Katara, wake up! Hey! Wake up!" He shook her. "Wake up!"

"Mmm… five more minutes…" She murmured sleepily, turning over.

"Forget it, Sokka. She's probably exhausted from all that _healing_ she did last night," Aang said coldly. Katara shot up, instantly awake. She stared at Aang, surprised. "You healed Zuko last night, didn't you?" He repeated. Katara sat there dumbly for a moment.

"How did you know…" She whispered, feeling nauseous.

"I saw you healing him, Katara!" Aang cried suddenly. "I saw you! Why didn't you tell us you could do that? What else aren't you telling us, Katara? Tell me! Why are you helping him? Why!"

She stared at the ground. "I just found out a few days ago. I didn't tell you because I thought it was a fluke, and there wasn't time to tell you anyway," she answered, her voice steady and low.

"You didn't answer the other question, Katara," Aang accused. "Why the hell are you helping _him_?"

"Because…" The rest of her sentence was spoken too softly to hear.

"What did you say?" Aang asked.

"I said, because I like him, okay?" Katara said defensively. "He's not a bad guy once you get to know him, really!"

"Katara, he's—" Sokka started.

"Please," she pleaded. "Just give him a chance. _Please_."

Zuko stirred.

Azula lay in her bed, staring at the blank steel ceiling above her bed.

Father was not going to be happy with her. She'd had Zuko on his own turf, and she'd lost. How could she tell the Fire Lord that she'd lost?

She never lost, and her father knew that. He'd made sure of it. For her entire life, Azula had not been told bedtime stories or sweet words of encouragement. Father had given her lectures and tirades before bed, and threatened her before fights, if he even bothered to show up. There was no place in her life for losing, and he made sure she knew that. If she lost, she would be a failure, just like her brother.

Azula would _not_ be a failure.

"Ka…tara…" Zuko mumbled as his eyes squinted open. He sat up quickly, his eyes surveying the scene. "What the hell!"

He was met with silence. Not surprising, considering who he was surrounded by. The Avatar, a kid who looked nothing like a warrior, and Katara. They all had solemn faces. Remembrance came rushing back to him. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Shit. I lost." Nobody said anything. "Where's Uncle?"

"He's fine, just sleeping," Katara reassured him, making a slight move towards him. "How do you feel?"

Zuko lifted an arm, inspecting it for wounds and finding none. "That's weird. I'm… fine." He sounded surprised. His stomach growled. Katara smiled softly and mumbled something about making breakfast before walking away.

"You should be dead," Aang commented coldly. The prince didn't react.

"Katara healed you, though I can't figure out why," Sokka said. "Now tell me _exactly_ what you did to my sister on that ship, or so help me—"

"Relax. She's fine, isn't she?" Zuko replied carelessly, still inspecting his body for damage.

"She would have died if we hadn't come to get her. You almost got her killed, the way you lost to that girl." Sokka paused. "We would've left you there, y'know that? Katara wouldn't leave unless we took you with us."

Zuko frowned and stared at the ground. "She did that, huh?" He murmured.

"Boys!" Katara yelled cheerfully from Appa's side. "Breakfast is ready!"

The ceiling hadn't changed, even after being subjected to several hours of the princess's glare.

At least something productive had come of the insomnia, though. She was ready to face the Fire Lord, and she knew just what to tell him.


	26. The Arrow

**Chapter 26 - The Arrow**

* * *

It was just after the first few bites of legumes and bread when _it_ happened. And when it happened, all hell broke loose.

"GET THE DAMN LEMUR!" Screamed an enraged fire price, chasing after the creature as if his life depended on it.

"Don't hurt Momo!" Aang cried, running after Zuko as if Momo's life depended on it—because it probably did, at this point.

Katara pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Somehow, she knew things would end up like this.

"You must forgive my nephew," Iroh explained as he sidled his way next to her. "Prince Zuko has never had any pets before."

"Obviously," Katara replied, slightly annoyed at all the commotion this early in the morning.

Sokka just sat on his log, enjoying his breakfast and quietly snickering. Who could've known Zuko would get so mad over a little lemur stealing his food?

"Azula."

"Hello, Father," she answered as she bowed, keeping her voice level. She wouldn't—couldn't—let him see how nervous she was.

"Where is your brother?" The Fire Lord sounded angry at her failure.

"I'm sorry, Father." She paused, taking a deep breath. "Zuko has joined the Avatar. I could not hope to win with the two of them fighting together."

Ozai was silent for almost a full minute before he spoke again. "I understand. See to it that wanted posters are made for Iroh and your brother. I expect you to complete your mission soon despite the circumstances. And if you see your brother, do not hesitate to kill him on the spot."

"Yes, Father," Azula answered, suppressing a triumphant smirk as she strode out of the room.

Twenty minutes later, the ex-prince was still proving his tenacity, and Aang was still trying to keep him from skinning poor Momo alive. Katara was pointedly ignoring them, and sat down next to Sokka, who was occupying himself by eating both Aang and Zuko's portions of breakfast. He eyed her as she joined him on the log, and to Katara's surprise, he set down Aang's plate and hugged her.

"Sokka?" She squeaked, wrapping her arms back around him.

"I really missed you, Katara," he whispered, burying his nose in her hair. "I really, really missed you. I was so worried, you don't even know."

"I missed you too, Sokka," she whispered back, pulling him a little closer before breaking the embrace and looking into his deep blue eyes. She could tell that he was being completely serious.

"I mean, you left me here with nothing but animals for company!" Sokka said, trying to lighten the moment.

"You think Aang is an animal?" She asked disapprovingly. He frowned.

"He got kinda weird after you… y'know, got kidnapped and all." He paused, looking thoughtful. "Yeah, he got really weird. He didn't smile or laugh or anything, and I was kinda worried. He was pretty much obsessed with finding you, losing sleep and stuff. It was like he was depressed, but a little angry too."

"Yeah, I _thought_ he'd been acting a little funny. He yelled at me this morning," she agreed. "But you really think it was because of _me_?" Sokka nodded, and she stared at the ground. "Well, you're wrong. I'll even ask him later, just to prove it to you." Lifting her chin into the air—and avoiding eye contact with her brother—she stalked off, a slight blush on her face.

Silently, Iroh plucked a lone arrow from the bison's underside.

After a long and strenuous debate, the group had decided to recuperate for a day or so. Appa wasn't looking so well, Aang was still a little weird, and Zuko…

"Would somebody _please_ get this damn monkey off me?" He growled, glowering at his new fuzzy neckwarmer. Momo chattered in disapproval of being called a 'monkey.'

"I'd say somebody's made a new friend," Katara giggled. At the end of the two-way chase, Momo had given up on running away and latched onto his assailant, refusing to let go even after Zuko's threats of introducing fried lemur as a new and exotic dish in the Fire Nation. Finally, the poor boy had just given up and resigned himself to the furry collar, scowling all the while.

"Shut up!" Zuko grumbled, glaring at the ground. Momo purred, and Sokka raised an eyebrow in appraisal. He had fully expected the boy to yell at her, not keep his cool.

_Well, almost_, Sokka thought._ And it wasn't really _cool_, when he thought about it. There was nothing cool about a firebender. So maybe he kept his _hot.

Abandoning the rare thought process, Sokka surveyed the campsite. "Where's Aang?" He asked, and as an afterthought added, "And Appa too?"

"Aang said something about going to that river to clean Appa up," she replied nonchalantly. Appa had been filthy after flying through smoke all last night.

"Maybe you should go check on him," Sokka suggested innocently. Or at least, he tried. Staring pointedly at the sky and making innocent faces hardly made one look innocent. Frowning, Katara acquiesced, and with a parting glance at Zuko, walked into the woods.

"Look at you, Appa!" Aang cried. "You're totally covered in soot!"

The bison grunted in agreement as he belly-flopped into the river, splashing so much water into the air that it appeared to be raining. Aang airbended himself an invisible umbrella to keep dry. He could swear that Appa looked like he was feeling better now, but perhaps it was just his imagination.

"Aang! Aang, are you out here?" He could hear Katara calling, and as he whirled around he could see a blue figure walking through the forest.

"Katara!" He ran towards her, stopping closer to her than he needed to. "Is something wrong? Why are you here?"

"No, I just wanted to see you," she told him. "Sokka… well, Sokka said you were acting kind of weird while I was gone, and I wanted to make sure you were okay, y'know?" She tried to hide it, but Aang could make out the tiniest of blushes on her cheeks.

Without warning, he threw his arms around her neck and she could hear him whispering words in her ear in a tiny voice she could barely make out. She caught bits and fragments as she carefully wrapped her own arms around his smaller form.

"Katara… so worried… thought he did terrible things… Zuko… you… away for so long… Zhao… and I was scared… I really missed you!" He almost sobbed the last part. Katara pulled away to see tears welled up in the boy's eyes, and she could tell he was making an effort not to cry. She pulled him back towards her and held him close, rocking him back and forth like a mother would.

"Shhhh," she breathed in his ear. "It's okay, I'm here now. It's okay."

She didn't know how long it was until he stopped shaking and she let go of him, finding a pair of bright and hopeful and loving gray eyes staring back at her. She took an involuntary step back.

_Those don't look like the eyes of a twelve-year-old_, she thought sadly.

"Katara, I missed you. I didn't really feel like myself while you were gone," he muttered sheepishly, a bright red coloring his face and a hand rubbing the back of his shiny bald head.

"So I've heard," she laughed, grabbing his hand. "C'mon, let's go back to camp. You too, Appa!"

Aang stared at their joined hands for a moment, his blush deepening. Then he grinned, and was happy to simply be dragged through the woods by this girl.

Upon arriving back at the camp, Katara and Aang's cheery mood was quickly displaced. Sokka, Iroh, and Zuko (with Momo still wrapped around his neck) were gathered around a piece of parchment that the old man was holding, and they appeared to be in deep discussion.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Aang asked, bouncing up behind Sokka, who flashed Katara a quick and discreet thumbs-up sign regarding the younger boy. Zuko glared at the hyperactive child, while Iroh remained silent. Even Momo seemed to realize the gravity of the situation, his ears flattened against his head.

"What's that paper?" Katara asked, frowning. She had a bad feeling about this.

"It's a letter from Admiral Zhao," Sokka told her. Iroh handed her the paper, and her scowl deepened as she read it.

_Dear Retired General Iroh,_

_It has come to my attention that you are traveling in the company of a fugitive of the Fire Nation. I believe it to be in your best interest to leave his side at once and rejoin the forces still loyal to the Fire Nation. I, personally, would be happy to welcome you into my own fleet as a war advisor. If you would like to take me up on this proposition, please seek out my ship at 0800 hours on the nineteenth day of this month in the port town of Shuujuku in the Earth Kingdom. I must warn you that if you continue to travel with the fugitive Prince Zuko, you will join him as a criminal charged with treason._

_Best regards,  
Admiral Zhao_


	27. Departure

**Chapter 27 - Departure**

* * *

Silence reigned over them as they stared at the letter. A torrent of emotions swirled around them, ranging from confusion to anger to pure hate. For a long time, no one spoke.

"... 'Best Regards,' eh?" Sokka broke the ice with a snort. He laughed, a short, bitter sound devoid of any true amusement. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen!"

"I…" Iroh began slowly, thinking out his words. "I think… it may be… in our best interest to accept," he finished quietly.

Zuko sprung backwards as if he'd been shot, his facial muscles contorted in a strange mixture of disgust, confusion, and anger. Momo, surprised, jumped off of Zuko and fled to Aang's head.

"You can't be serious!" He yelled, furious. "How can you even consider joining Zhao!"

"Prince Zuko—" Iroh started, but was cut off.

"So you're deserting me too, is that it! Sick of babysitting your failure nephew! Well, go ahead, see if I care! Leave!" Zuko screamed, running away into the forest. Katara called after him, but it was useless. The prince was gone, leaving behind a trail of burning leaves.

Sighing, Iroh ignored the blatant stares of his companions and followed Zuko into the forest.

Katara fidgeted on her log, braiding and unraveling and rebraiding her hair over and over. It had been over two hours since Zuko and Iroh disappeared, and she was getting worried. Zuko wasn't exactly known for being emotionally sound, and the events of the past twenty-four hours could have simply been too much for the battered prince.

It was past noon now, and the sun was crossing into the other side of the sky. She had made lunch for Aang and Sokka, with extra in hope that Iroh and Zuko would come back in time for the meal. They hadn't.

Finally, when the sun had crossed three-fourths of the sky, Iroh returned from the forest, looking exhausted. Katara rushed to him, placing her hand on his shoulder for support and brimming with questions.

"Where's Zuko?"

Iroh sighed. Katara panicked.

"Is he okay? Did he hurt himself? Did he run away?" She asked frantically. "Is—"

"Hush," Iroh chastised gently. He looked into Katara's worried eyes, and breathed a heavy sigh. "Perhaps it would be best… if you went to him now," he suggested. Seeing her mirror image in his tired gold eyes, and beneath herself, she could see the same worry she felt for Zuko. Wordlessly, she nodded, and began her own trek into the forest.

Aang frowned as Katara walked into the trees.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Sokka asked apprehensively. "He won't hurt her, will he?"

"No," Iroh assured. "She is safe."

He whispered a small prayer anyway.

She found him on the beach, staring silently at the setting sun. Wordlessly, she sat down next to him, digging her fingers into the sun-warmed sand. They sat there together for a long time, simply watching the sun and the waves before them. Finally, Zuko spoke.

"He's leaving."

She turned her head to look at him, but he was still staring aimlessly into the blue horizon. Another long pause passed before he said anything more.

"I've lost my purpose, my home, and my family in the past twenty-four hours, you know that?" He told her sadly, his brow furrowed as he stared at the ocean. "Everything is gone. I have to start all over."

She said nothing.

"He wants me to stay with you and teach the Avatar firebending."

"That's wonderful!" Katara suddenly exclaimed excitedly. Zuko frowned and turned to her.

"What?" He spluttered. "What's wonderful about me losing everything that was ever important to me?"

"Aang gets to learn firebending, and I get to keep you!"

"You make me sound like a pet," he muttered crossly, blushing slightly. She reached out with her hand a played with his ponytail, giggling. Rolling his eyes, he grabbed her hand and dragged it down into the sand, still joined with his. She laughed and laid her head on his shoulder comfortably, smiling.

"Hey," he whispered in her ear. "I love you."

She laughed and kissed him softly on the cheek, and he thought that maybe he hadn't lost _quite_ everything.

"_Prince Zuko, you must listen to me. It is better if I go with Zhao."_

"_You're lying! You're just like my father, you know that? I fail at something, and you desert me!"_

"_I am not deserting you, Prince Zuko. I am—"_

"_I screw up and you bail on me! Just like the rest of our family! You're ashamed of me too, aren't you! I thought you were different, I trusted you! You were the only person I could rely on, and now you're just leaving me behind to go with the guy who tried to kill us!"_

"_Prince Zuko, try to understand—"_

"_No! I don't want to understand! Just get out of here already! I'm sick of looking at you!"_

"_Zuko. Be quiet."_

_The prince was silent, eyes wide and pained and confused and more than a little indignant at being hushed. But he was silent, and waiting for the old man to speak._

"_I am not doing this for myself. I am doing it to protect you. I will go to Shuujuku and join Admiral Zhao, and I will tell him you are dead. The Fire Nation will stop searching for you, and I will do my best to keep them off of your tracks, as well as the Avatar's."_

_Zuko said nothing. The old man was not called the Dragon of the West for nothing, after all._

"_I would like for you to join and aid the Avatar, Prince Zuko. I believe it will be the best habitat for you now that I am gone. Katara is a good influence on you, and you should be with people your own age more often."_

"_I don't _need_ to be with people my own age, Uncle! I need to capture the Avatar so I can go home and regain my honor!"_

_Iroh was silent, his eyes filled with a great sadness and pity. Zuko didn't like the way Iroh was looking at him._

"_Uncle, I—"_

"_Zuko. Do not lie to yourself. It is over. You cannot return to the Fire Nation now. Your only hope of regaining your honor now is to assist the Avatar and defeat the Fire Nation."_

"_Betraying one's country is not honorable!"_

"_The Fire Nation gave up its honor long ago, when it first attacked the other nations. You will gain nothing by helping them."_

_Zuko found his words caught in his throat. Iroh thought his eyes looked like those of a lost child._

"_Then…what's the point?" Zuko whispered. "What's the point, if I can't go home?"_

"_Home is where the heart is, Prince Zuko. Where is your heart?"_

_The boy's eyes flickered towards the ocean, just for a moment, but the answer was clear enough. He still could not speak._

"_I will leave tomorrow for Shuujuku. I want you to stay with Katara; I have no doubt that she will allow you to stay once we explain the situation to her. I doubt you would want to leave her now anyway, no?" _

_The question was not really a question, and so Zuko didn't give an answer. They remained mute for a time before Zuko gave a question of his own._

"_Are you telling me that I have to fight the Fire Nation?"_

_Iroh sighed. "Yes. They must be defeated, and before the comet's arrival. The Avatar must master all the elements by that time, so I expect you to teach him firebending."_

"_What?" Cried Zuko, surprised. "You want _me_ to teach him? After I've chased him for three years! And how do you know he'll even let me join them?"_

"_The Avatar is not a bad person, Zuko. You know this. He must learn firebending, and you are as good a master as any."_

"_That's a lie and you know it."_

"_What you lack in patience you make up for in hard work and determination, Prince Zuko. I believe that you will find him to be a satisfactory pupil, and you always did enjoy a challenge, didn't you?"_

_Zuko said nothing, but looked away at the ground beside him. Iroh took this to be a sign of acquiescence. _

"_I will return to the camp now to prepare for my trip, Prince Zuko. I have only two days to get to Shuujuku. If you wish to remain here, that is fine."_

_The prince turned away and walked towards the border of land and sea, sitting on the sand and staring at the ocean. Iroh began to walk back into the forest, but seemed to think better and stopped._

"_One last thing, Prince Zuko." The prince made no sign of acknowledgement. "I have never, not even once, been ashamed of you."_

_Then he left, and Zuko was alone._

It was dark when Zuko and Katara got back to the camp. The fire was lit, but Sokka and Momo were the only ones around it. Katara frowned.

"Where's Aang?" She asked her brother. She could barely see his face in the firelight.

"He took the old guy to that town. He said he'd be back by morning," Sokka answered, nonchalant.

"What!" Zuko cried suddenly. "You mean Uncle's gone!"

"Yeah, I guess so." The water boy was obviously unconcerned.

"But I didn't even get to say goodbye!" Zuko whispered hoarsely, upset.

"Yeah, he left a letter for you," Sokka said as if suddenly remembering, pulling a piece of folded paper out of a pocket and holding it out for the prince. Shaking only slightly, Zuko took the paper and unfolded it.

_Dear Zuko,_

_I am sorry for leaving without saying goodbye. This is hard for both of us, and I thought it would be easier this way. Please forgive me. _

_The Avatar—or Aang, as we should refer to him as now—has agreed to give me a ride on his flying bison to about a mile outside of Shuujuku. This animal is most amazing. It has the ability to fly even though it is so large. I must admit, I am excited with the proposition of riding on such a noble animal. To think that you will have the opportunity to do such a thing daily! But I digress._

_On a more serious note, Zuko, I will miss you dearly. You are the only civilized family I have left, and I fear that Admiral Zhao will be far less enjoyable company than you. I wish for you to know that I have thought of you as my own son over the past three years, and I could not be prouder of you. In my eyes, you are the most honorable man I know. _

_Until we meet again,  
Love,  
Iroh_

_PS: Since I am no longer going to be around, I am passing my matchmaking duties on to you. I expect at least one grandchild running around/in the works within the next year. Good luck!_

Zuko crumpled the letter in his hands, flushing a deep red.

"I'm going to bed," he announced, hoping no one could see his blush in the darkness.

"Good night," Katara offered softly, moving towards her own sleeping bag.

Nevertheless, Zuko uncrumpled the letter and refolded it carefully, placing it in his pocket where he could never lose it.

_Uncle,_ he thought as he fell asleep. _We'll definitely see each other soon. I promise._


	28. White Lies

**Chapter 28 - White Lies**

* * *

Aang didn't know how late it was when he arrived back at the camp. Everyone was asleep and the fire had mostly died, leaving a small pile of cinders glowing in brilliant shades of oranges and reds. The moon, full and illuminating, was nearing the western horizon. He knew it wouldn't be more than an hour or two before sunrise, and laid back on Appa, trying to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later, and still wide awake, Aang decided that perhaps sleep would be impossible tonight. Big changes were coming, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't a little apprehensive about them. Katara was back, but how would their 'family' deal with an addition like Zuko? He was temperamental, violent, a firebender, and their former enemy.

In truth, though, Aang didn't have a problem with Zuko. He'd liked him well enough before the whole incident with Katara's kidnapping. He had often wondered if, a hundred years ago, they could have been friends. Aang was reluctant to admit it to himself, let alone anyone else, but Zuko himself wasn't where the problem was.

The problem was Katara and Zuko.

Aang would never admit it, even to himself, but he knew deep down that he liked Katara. And it wasn't the like in the way of 'I like you enough to travel with you,' or even the 'I like you as a sister' type of like. It was the _like_ like, the 'I like you a lot, please bat your eyelashes at me and kiss me' type of like. He was only two years younger than her, after all. He'd thought about it, long and hard, and if he waited a year or two, he was bound to at least have a chance with her. And hadn't she just grabbed his hand in the woods yesterday?

But then there was Zuko. It was obvious that Zuko felt _something_ for Katara. Aang was positive that he wasn't the only one who picked up on Zuko's behavior towards the waterbender. Yesterday, when Momo had wrapped himself around the exiled prince, Katara had laughed, and instead of yelling at her, Zuko had only grumbled, not yelled like Aang had expected.

And then there was everything Katara had done for Zuko. She'd protected him, insisted upon saving him, she'd drained her strength healing him, and she had gone off _alone_ with him, on purpose. Not to mention that Zuko was only two years old than Katara, the same age difference between her and Aang. It was something for the young Avatar to be concerned about.

Turning onto his side, he surveyed the quiet camp. Katara was sleeping, her lips slightly parted and her chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm. He knew _something_ was off about how she looked, but he couldn't put his finger on it... what was it?

_The necklace!_

Of course! How had he missed it before? Hadn't Zuko taken that necklace of hers a while ago? And now there it was, wrapped around her slender neck as if it had never left. He almost couldn't believe that Zuko, the grumpy and spoiled prince who had always had some sort of contempt for the lowly waterbender, had given it back to her. Zuko had always treated Katara as inferior in their previous encounters, but it was obvious that something had changed between them. Especially if Zuko had given back her necklace.

_Just what happened between them on that ship?_ Aang wondered as he watched her sleep.

* * *

"_I must thank you, young Master Aang, for showing such charity towards an old man such as myself," Iroh said, bowing slightly to him. Aang found the show of respect to be slightly unnerving as he sat awkwardly beside the old firebender. "And also towards my nephew. I understand that you have not been on the best of terms since the two of you met." Iroh smiled warmly, and Aang found himself liking the man more than he would have expected._

"_It's, uh, no problem," Aang replied, rubbing the back of his bald head. "I mean, you couldn't just walk the whole way, right?"_

_Iroh laughed. "I'm sure I walked longer distances in my younger years, but not anymore." He paused, his smile diminishing. He sighed. "Master Aang, I have a request of you."_

"_Yeah? What is it?"_

"_I would like you to keep Prince Zuko in your company."_

_Aang was silent, but his frown was an answer within itself._

"_I see you are not pleased with the idea, but please let me explain the situation." Iroh took a deep breath, thinking before he spoke. "My nephew has not had an easy life, despite being royalty. Two years ago he was banished from the Fire Nation by his own father, just after he gave his own son that scar. He was ordered to capture the Avatar—you—before he could return to his home and regain his honor."_

_Aang nodded, urging Iroh to continue._

"_However, the cumulative failures to capture you have caused my brother to lose all faith in his son. Fire Lord Ozai has ordered my niece, Princess Azula, to kill him. He has been permanently banished from his home, and he is about to lose his only remaining family, me. However, during her captivity onboard Prince Zuko's ship, I believe that Miss Katara has befriended my nephew. In fact, they've become rather close."_

"_Where are you going with this?" Aang asked, confused._

"_It is my personal opinion that the best environment for my nephew is around your friend, Miss Katara. In return for keeping him in your company, I would like for him to teach you firebending, as I believe that you have yet to master it, correct?" Aang nodded, frowning. _

"_What do you mean, 'rather close'?" He asked. "They're just friends, right?"_

_Iroh's eyes widening. He hadn't realized that this boy was also in the running for Katara's affections. Judging the situation, he decided to tell a white lie. "Of course," he answered smoothly. The Avatar smiled, appeased, and they settled into a comfortable silence._

_Iroh could only hope that this endeavor didn't end like Ba Sing Se._

* * *

Zuko awoke to a bright, clear sky, the shining sun, and something warm and furry in his sleeping bag.

"Aaugh!" He yelled, jumping out of the bag. Katara awoke with a start, looking around frantically to see what was wrong. Aang and Sokka were still sleeping, but as for Zuko... well, she could only laugh at what she saw.

"Uh, Zuko, what are you doing, exactly?" She asked, stifling giggles.

"There's something in there," he replied crossly, poking the lump in the bag with a stick.

"Something in the sleeping bag?" She repeated.

"Why are you laughing?" He growled, poking the lump again. He jumped when it moved. Katara, now failing at her attempts to mask laughter, got out of her sleeping bag, gently pushed Zuko out of the way, and reached in.

"Hey, you don't know what's in there!" He warned, panicking. She laughed, extracting Momo from the bag. Zuko dropped the stick and small jets of fire began in his hands. Scared, Momo wrapped himself around Katara's neck as she laughed.

"C'mon, I'll start breakfast," she said, still giggling. "Fish sound good?"

"Fine," Zuko sulked.

"Good. Now be a big boy and make up with Momo," she teased, holding out the squirming lemur. "Go ahead, kiss and make up."

He patted the lemur on the head, then swiftly placed a kiss on Katara's lips. She grinned. "You were supposed to kiss Momo," she reprimanded jokingly.

"Oh, I got confused. You're both little, noisy, and annoying," he told her with a playful smile.

"Yeah? Well, you're big, pouty, and violent," she replied.

"Yeah? Well, you still love me, don't you?" He grinned, and she blushed.

"I-I have to go get fish now. For breakfast," she stammered as she turned around and began towards the water.

"I'll join you," he said, checking one last time to make sure Aang and Sokka were asleep before wrapping an arm around her waist.

* * *

"Are you sure it's them?" Muttered one voice as they stared at her through the bushes.

"Yeah. Definitely," replied a second voice.

"We're not gonna let her get away this time, right?" Asked a third voice.

"Right," the second agreed. Then to himself he whispered, "I've been waiting for you, Katara..."


	29. Shanghai

**Chapter 29 – Shanghai**

* * *

Zuko stared deeply into the water, concentrating entirely on being the first to spot a fish. He would _definitely_win.

Katara's eyes skimmed the azure ocean, her eyes searching for even the slightest glimmer of a scale. She was a waterbender! How could she lose to some Fire brat?

A flash a silver rippled through the water.

"Gotchya!"

"It's mine!"

"Ow! Hey, that was _my _fish!" Katara pouted, watching helplessly as the fish sped away.

"It was mine," Zuko stated flatly, gripping the boomerang tighter. Sokka's boomerang, to be exact. He'd pilfered it when he'd found something—which turned out to be Momo—in his sleeping bag. After all, one could never be too careful. Katara had just laughed when she saw him using it in an attempt to catch fish. She, on the other hand, had been trying to use her waterbending, but found it difficult to concentrate with a shirtless prince beside her.

Thus far, both of their efforts had been unsuccessful.

Focusing very deeply on the next unsuspecting fish that happened to swim by, Katara moved her arms gracefully and grinned as the fish rose in a sphere of water. Slowly, she manipulated the bubble closer to her, her eyes never blinking or leaving her prize.

Suddenly, a jet of fire shot into the air, and the fish flopped down onto the water, obviously dead.

"Zuko… did you just… fry my fish?" Katara stammered, stunned.

"Heh," was his only response as he smirked at her. She stared at the fish for a few moments before glaring at Zuko. "What!" He cried, throwing up his hands as he faltered under her unwavering gaze. Then, without any warning, she tackled him. Caught off guard, Zuko toppled down under the water, the blue-eyed girl on top of him. They both came up a few seconds later, gasping for air as they laughed.

"That—wasn't—fair!" He panted, still laughing. They grinned at each other, happy to be together.

"Hey, wanna try that again?" She asked after another period of laughter and splashing. He nodded. Within minutes, several fish were floating on the water, crispy brown and smelling delicious. Gathering their load with soft smiles, they headed back to camp.

* * *

"Those two look pretty close," Smellerbee mentioned offhandedly as they watched the teenagers play in the water. "Who is he? I don't remember him."

"I dunno," Jet answered, slightly cross. "But he won't get away with taking _my_ woman."

"But Jet, didn't she leave you?" The Duke pointed out.

"Not to mention she beat you up and froze you to a tree," Longshot added.

"Shut up," Jet muttered, hitting the two younger boys. "It was her brother and that damn Avatar kid, they were the problem. But take her away from the problem…"

"And she'll fall for you all over again?" Sneers finished for him.

"Exactly." Jet smirked. "So who's up for rescuing a damsel in distress?"

* * *

"My boomerang is, under no circumstances whatsoever, borrowable!" Sokka cried, cradling his precious weapon. "Never ever ever!"

Katara rolled her eyes and exchanged glances with Zuko, who looked more frightened over Sokka's display of emotion than the actual threats that had been made upon the return of said boomerang.

"Thanks for breakfast, though," Aang called from his seat upon Appa. "But why were you guys so wet when you came back?"

"We, er, fell, into the ocean," Katara supplied lamely, noting that her clothes were still damp. At least Zuko had a shirt on now, at any rate. Aang seemed to buy her excuse, and continued eating his fish happily.

"Are you listening, Zuko? I said, this boomerang is NOT to be touched!" Sokka was yelling, too busy raging to notice Zuko silently miming him.

Suddenly, a scream pierced through the woods, echoing through their encampment.

"Help!" A voice was crying loudly. "Please, someone help me!"

Without another word, Katara and Aang ran into the woods, followed closely by Sokka, and finally, a lagging Zuko. They split up quickly, turning separate directions to find the source of the pleas for help. Distantly, the boys heard Katara scream briefly before the woods become silent.

Spinning around in surprise, Zuko found himself face-to-face with a gigantic boy nearly twice his size.

"The hell are you—" Zuko began. But the boy hit him in the head, and then there was only the darkness and dirt.

* * *

"You sure this was a good idea, Jet?" The Duke asked as they laid the unconscious girl on a blanket on the floor of the boat. "It kinda feels like kidnapping to me."

"It's not kidnapping if they want to go with you, stupid," Smellerbee replied.

"But she didn't want to go! We knocked her out to get her to come with us!" The Duke protested.

"It was just gas, Duke. Chill out, it's not like we hit her over the head with a rock or anything," Jet scoffed. "Now row, row!"

The boys followed their orders, but kept their eyes on the sleeping girl all the same.

* * *

Zuko groaned as he sat up slowly, holding his head. "What the hell happened to me?" He moaned in pain.

"Pipsqueak knocked you out," Aang told him, poking a dying fire with a charred stick unenthusiastically. Beside him sat Sokka, and Zuko noticed that night had fallen.

"Who? And where's Katara?"

Both Aang and Sokka visibly stiffened.

"She's gone," Sokka said tonelessly. "Jet kidnapped her."

"Who the hell is Jet? And why did he kidnap her? And why didn't you go after her!"

"Jet is the leader of a group of kids who fight the Fire Nation army, but he's a creep. You can't trust him. He tried to drown a whole village just to flush out a few soldiers, and Katara and Aang would have helped him do it, if me and my instincts hadn't saved the day!" Sokka announced, his pride only slightly dampened by Katara's abduction.

"We didn't go after her because, for one, you were knocked out, and two, they made Appa sick. I'm not sure how they did it, but they probably fed him something bad for him. We searched the woods for a few hours, but those guys live in the trees. We didn't have a chance," Aang explained in a monotone. The boy was obviously upset.

"Fine, but _why_ did this Jet guy take Katara?" Zuko growled, not missing the fact that both boys had deliberately avoided answering his question.

"We think that he might want to use her waterbending powers to fight the Fire Nation," Aang explained. "Well… that, or…" He trailed off.

"Or what?" Zuko implored, growing steadily more worried about Katara's wellbeing by the second.

"Well, see, Jet liked Katara, and Katara really liked Jet—at least, she did before Sokka showed us what he was really like," Aang began, staring at the ground. "But we think that Jet might still like Katara."

Zuko took a second to absorb this information.

"He won't hurt her, will he?" He demanded impatiently, feeling his palms heat up.

"We don't think so," Sokka replied, "but Jet's kind of unpredictable. There's no way to be sure."

"Is that bison better yet? We have to go find her!" Zuko cried, standing up quickly. Too quickly, as it turned out; he toppled over, clutching his head in agony. "And what did that guy hit me with, a tree?"

"Nope, just his fist," Sokka said helpfully. "Appa's still sick, and we don't have a clue where they went. We'll have to wait till tomorrow morning."

"That's not acceptable! We have to find her as soon as poss—"

"You're not the only one who's worried about her, okay!" Aang cried, standing up suddenly. "It's not like we _want_ to sit here and wait around! We're just as worried about her as you!"

Zuko grimaced and looked away, ashamed. _Of course they're worried about her. They're her brother and best friend. _

"There's some fish leftover from breakfast, if you're hungry," Sokka offered, holding a fish out on a stick.

"Not hungry," Zuko muttered, and crawled back into his sleeping bag for the night. He didn't even put up a fight when Momo crept in with him.

None of them would be getting much sleep that night.


	30. Bumps in the Night

**Chapter 30 - Things That Go 'Bump' In The Night**

* * *

Katara groaned as she slowly opened her eyes to the dark room.

_What happened?_ She wondered groggily, looking around. _This is not camp, not by a long shot. And why are my hands tied up behind my back?_ She tugged them gently, realizing that she'd need a knife to get the knots undone. Panicking only slightly, she took a quick inventory.

_Okay, I'm in a dark room. There's a small window but not much moonlight coming in, which means I'm either not facing the moon, or the moon is being blocked by something. I'm sitting against some sort of pole, and my hands are tied around the back of it. My head doesn't hurt, so they didn't hit me to knock me out. I'm not bleeding. And all my clothes are on,_ she reminded herself thankfully. _So… what happened?_

"Awake, are we?" Came a deep voice from the other corner of the room. The figure was shrouded in darkness, and she could just barely make out the shape of a person sitting against the wall. "You've been asleep for hours, y'know. It's about time."

"Who are you?" Katara demanded sternly in her best tell-me-or-else voice.

"What, forgotten me already?" He laughed. "C'mon Katara, how could you forget _me_?"

". . ."

Jet was starting to get worried. Did she really not recognize him? Another pregnant silence filled the air before she admitted in a slightly apologetic voice, "I'm sorry, I really don't know…"

He frowned. He hadn't anticipated this. Darting across the room before Katara could realize that the dark shape had moved, he covered her lips with his own, kissing her roughly before pulling away to whisper in her ear in a deep, gravelly tone.

"Let's see if I can make you remember."

* * *

Zuko laid motionless in his sleeping bag, staring at the cloudly night sky.

_At least it's not raining, _he tried to comfort himself, absentmindedly stroking Momo's soft fur. The lemur was curled up on his stomach under the fabric of the bag, purring happily. _And the Avatar said that this Jet guy wouldn't hurt Katara. She'll be fine till tomorrow, when we rescue her, right?_

Suddenly, something the Avatar had said came to his mind.

_"Well, see, Jet liked Katara, and Katara really liked Jet—at least, she did before Sokka showed us what he was really like. But we think that Jet might still like Katara."_

Katara had liked Jet?

And not just liked, but _really _liked?

But Sokka had showed them what he was really like. _What's that supposed to mean?_ Zuko wondered. _What did that buffoon do?_

Of course, there was no chance of Katara's feelings for this 'Jet' being resurrected, right?

Sighing, Zuko closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep. His head was throbbing, his girlfriend was in the hands of some crazed kidnapper, he was at the mercy of the person he'd been trying to capture for the past two years, the Fire Nation had a bounty on him and his own sister was trying to kill him.

_Splat!_

And damn it all to hell, it was starting to rain.

* * *

"Jet!" She cried in outrage, trying to move away from her assailant. Unfortunately, with her hands bound behind her back to a pole, she didn't go far, and ended up hurting her wrists. "Get away from me, you pervert!"

"Aww, c'mon Katara," he pouted, holding his face close enough to hers for her to see his features perfectly, despite the darkness of the room. "I thought you liked me."

"That was before I found out what a total creep you are!" She cried angrily, still jerking at her ties. "Now let me go!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he told her in a mock-apologetic voice. "You see, me and my freedom fighters are still fighting the Fire Nation, and for our new tactic, we need a waterbender." He paused to gently move a chunk of hair out of her face to behind her ear. "And waterbenders are in short supply these days."

Katara could feel her wrists rubbing raw from her failing escape attempts.

"_Let me go!_" She hissed, baring her teeth at him. "There's no way I'd help you and your so called 'freedom fighters.' You guys are nothing but a bunch of thugs!"

"Thugs? Ouch, that hurts," Jet laughed. "You've been spending too much time around your brother and that Avatar kid."

_What is he talking about!_ Katara wondered wildly. _Oh, he must not know about my being kidnapped. He thinks I've been with Sokka and Aang this whole time._

And for some reason, that pissed her off.

"Shut up. You don't know the first thing about me," she spat.

"Then why don't you teach me?" Jet whispered seductively into her ear, running his tongue over the rim of her ear. A shiver ran down her spine. "Whaddya say, Katara?"

She squeezed her eyes shut, grimacing. She tried to turn her head away from him, but he gently took her chin in his hand and turned it back towards him. She had no choice but to glare straight into his eyes.

"No answer yet, eh? That's okay. You'll see my way soon enough." He smiled warmly at her. "But in the meantime, Katara, I missed you."

Taken aback, she blinked in rapid succession. "Wh-what?

"You're cute when you're confused," he whispered, kissing her again. She tried to move away, but her chin was still in his hand. As if that wasn't enough, he secured his other hand on the back of her head, entangled in her hair and forcing her to struggle helplessly.

Without warning, a loud knock resounded from outside the room.

"Jet, you in there?" Someone called in. Katara couldn't recognize whose voice it was.

"_Damn,_" he muttered in annoyance at being interrupted, quickly moving away from her. "Yeah, yeah, I'm in here," he replied louder. "I'm coming."

Katara breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he stood up to leave.

"Don't worry, I'll be back," Jet told her softly, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead before striding out the dark doorway.

She spit across the room, trying to purge his taste from her mouth.

* * *

Zuko was, unsurprisingly, the first one to awaken the next morning. By the time the sun had rose, joined by Aang and Sokka, the banished prince had already packed up his sleeping bag, checked on the giant flying beaver-thing, and started a fire.

Warming his hands by the fire, Aang decided there was definitely a plus or two in having a firebender in your company on a crisp morning like this.

"You guys are awake, so let's go," Zuko stated flatly.

"Y'know," Aang began slowly, staring at the ground while rubbing his bald head with one hand. "This is kinda awkward."

Zuko arched an eyebrow but remained silent.

"Well, it's like this. Sokka and I, we don't really think that Katara's in any real danger with Jet. But..."

"What Aang's trying to say is that we were way more worried about her when she was with you," Sokka finished, mid-yawn.

Zuko frowned, but knew he couldn't completely blame the two boys for thinking that way. Of course, that didn't make him any less worried about Katara.

"Whatever. Let's just go already."

Aang sighed. Somehow he'd known that Zuko wasn't a morning person.

_Whatever happened to "I'm a firebender, I rise with the sun"? _The young Avatar wondered absently as he watched the cranky ex-prince stalk off toward Appa.


	31. Tactics

**Chapter 31 - Tactics**

* * *

Katara woke the next morning to soft sunlight dripping through the trees and the open window of the room. She could hear birds singing to each other just outside, and a soft, crisp breeze from the sea rolled in. It would have been peaceful, she imagined, if not for the fact that she was currently being held hostage by some crazy boy.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when someone brought her breakfast. A girl she vaguely recognized from her last visit to the Hideout knocked briefly before entering with a tray of fruit. Katarasaid nothing, but glared at her with the meanest look she could muster. Skittishly, she laid it on the ground in front of Katara and left wordlessly.

Her mouth was watering, and she realized that she hadn't had a decent meal since she was on Zuko's ship. She wanted to shovel every bit of that fruit down her throat—and maybe spit a few of the seeds back out at Jet. Yeah, that'd make her feel better. Especially since she couldn't actually eat the damn fruit.

Why, oh why, hadn't that kid untied her hands?

* * *

"CAN WE GO YET!" Zuko roared from aboard Appa, fury contorting his face. "Katara's probably waiting for us!"

"Calm down, Mister Princy-pants," Sokka responded in a bored tone. "We're just making sure we have everything before we fly away to look for Miss I-Like-Getting-Kidnapped-By-Strange-Men."

A beat. "Are you calling me strange?"

"Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

"I'm not the one whose weapon of choice is a boomerang."

"Well excuse me for not being a violent human flamethrower like you."

"At least I don't live in a block of ice and eat whale-fat for dinner."

"No, of course you don't eat _whale-fat_. You probably eat babies or kittens or something like that."

"Uh, Sokka—yip yip!—I don't think they eat kittens in the Fire Nation," Aang tried to assuage the situation as he launched them into the air.

"But what about babies, Aang?" Sokka argued. "I hear they eat some weird stuff over there in the Fire Nation. And trust me, I _know_ weird."

"You live on an ice cube, you get around via a flying six-legged beaver, you travel with a kid who's one-hundred-and-twelve, and did I already mention that you defend yourself with a _boomerang_? Yeah, you know weird, alright."

"Hey, Appa's not a beaver! He's a flying bison!"

"Babies, Aang! Babies!"

Zuko rubbed his temples. This was going to be a loooong ride.

* * *

"Morning, sunshine," Jet sang as strolled into Katara's room, chewing his trademark stalk of grass. She pointedly stared away from him. "Aww, don't be like that. I need you, remember?"

"Well so far you've done a pretty lousy job trying to convince me to help you," she growled. "And untie my hands. I'm starving."

"No problem, Katara," he said airily. Leaning in closer than he needed to, he reached behind her and untied her hands. Just as he started to back away, she struck.

It was over in a flash. Her curled fist was cupped harmlessly inside Jet's palm, and the bastard was _laughing _at her. "Now, now, Katara, fighting is for boys."

"Screw you!"

"Be my guest," he replied, grinning. Katara groaned. Where the hell were the boys, and why weren't they here yet?

"Don't make me throw up. What do you need me for, anyway? Some crazy plot against the Fire Nation where tons of innocent people die, I'm sure," she practically spat at him while scarfing down the fruit that had been tempting her for so long.

"Oh, don't worry, Katara. Only the Fire Nation soldiers will die. We're stealing some supplies and stuff of theirs from a nearby Earth Kingdom village." He reached towards her fruit plate, but she smacked his hand away. He laughed.

"So what exactly do I have to do with this?" Katara asked through a mouthful of food.

"You need to use your waterbending to sink the Fire Navy ships. Just throw some water on a few boats. Nothin' hard."

"Uh-huh. And when you say 'supplies and stuff,' what kind of 'stuff' are we talking about?" She asked skeptically while licking the last of the fruit juice off her fingertips.

"Oh, you know. Food, weapons, money. The usual."

She glared at him, looking him deep in the eyes. "There's something you're not telling me," she concluded after several seconds of intense studying. "Something important."

"Well, it wouldn't be any fun if I told you_ everything_, now would it?" He grinned broadly at her, confirming her suspicions.

"I'm not helping unless you tell me everything," she told him firmly, folding her arms across her chest.

"So you agree to help me if I tell you everything, then?"

"I'm not agreeing to anything. I just don't like being left out of the loop." She began unbraiding her hair, running her fingers through it like a makeshift brush. "And knowing you, it's probably something concerning the villagers."

"Oh, c'mon, Katara. Enough about the plan. Let's talk about you."

"What about me?" She asked uncertainly.

"It's been a long time since we've been together, y'know."

"Jet, the last time we were together, I froze you to a tree."

"I'm aware of that, Katara. And I think it's kind of a turn-on."

"You're messed up."

"So I've been told."

"Seriously! Getting frozen to a tree in the middle of a fight it _not_ sexy! How long were you stuck there, anyway?"

"The better part of six hours, I think. Damn ice wouldn't melt. The Duke had to come hack the ice off."

"Glad to hear it," Katara smirked.

An awkward silence filled the room for a few moments before Jet asked, "So who was that guy?"

"Huh? Who?" Katara stuttered, surprised.

"The new guy, the one with a scar on his face. Who is he?" He paused. "You two looked pretty chummy to me."

"J-Jet, you were _spying_ on us!" Katara cried. "That's none of your business!"

"Who is he, Katara?" Jet insisted. "Don't tell me you've got a new boyfriend."

"As a matter of fact, I do!" She declared happily. "Don't look so surprised, Jet. Geez."

He scowled at her for a moment before announcing, "I don't believe you. You're just saying that so I'll leave you alone."

"Don't believe it if you don't want to, Jet. But I guess we'll see when he gets here, won't we?" She smiled sweetly at him, and his scowl turned to a glare. He stood up and briskly walked towards the doorway.

"You know, Katara," he said as he paused for a moment. "He looked like Fire Nation to me. And we _kill_ the Fire Nation."

And then he was gone, and she was alone again.


	32. Treehouse Rescue Part 1

**Chapter 32 - Treehouse Rescue (Part 1)**

* * *

"We're looking for _what_, again?" Zuko asked, his face scrunched up in utter disbelief.

"A treehouse," Aang said tiredly for the fourth time. Or maybe it was the fifth. He'd forgotten how many times Zuko had already felt the need to clarify the 'treehouse' issue.

"Katara got kidnapped by a guy who lives in a _treehouse_?" Zuko was clearly still unable to accept this fact. "Where do you guys _meet_ these kind of people?"

"They saved us from the Fire Nation troops once," Aang replied. "So they're not all bad."

"Except for trying to drown a whole town and all that, yeah, they're not bad at all!" Sokka said sarcastically. "I _told_ you guys my instincts were right. Why don't we listen to my instincts more often?"

"Because they're usually wrong, Sokka," Aang deadpanned. "Now look for that treehouse."

Katara could have been described as many things—annoyed, tired, and hungry, to name a few—but entertained was not one of them.

_Honestly, who does he think he is?_ She demanded to herself. _Kidnapping me like that, and then leaving me here with nothing to do! I'm bored!_

At least Jet had the decency to untie her hands, she remembered. But even though her movements were no longer restricted, she couldn't leave. The door was locked, and the window led to a forty-foot drop to the ground. Jet had made sure to not leave her any escape routes.

...or had he?

"Hey, I think that's it!" Sokka cried suddenly after a good three hours of scanning the forest.

Aang took the bison down in the direction of Sokka's pointed finger. Squinting his eyes and shielding his face from the sun with a hand above his forehead, he confirmed it. "Yep, that's it. Let's go!"

"Wait," Zuko said. "We should probably land a little farther away."

"Why?" Aang asked ignorantly.

"Appa's kind of... noticable," Zuko told him in a placative tone.

"Whaddya mean?"

"He's a giant fluffy monster, Aang!" Sokka agreed. "As much as I hate to admit it, Zuko's right."

"Fine," Aang pouted, steering the bison away.

_This is **such** a bad idea_, Katara admonished herself as she slowly lowered herself out of the window. _If this doesn't work and I fall, I'm gonna die. No doubt about it._

It wasn't the smartest plan, or the safest plan, or most well-thought-out plan. But it was the _only_ plan she had right now.

Jet had made four vital mistakes. First, he had untied Katara. Second, he had left the rope behind. Third, he hadn't left a guard with her. And lastly, he had assumed that she wouldn't be stupid enough to try to escape from the window.

And now here she was, dangling forty feet in the air from a rope tied to a bamboo pole.

_Thank goodness for Appa,_ she thought gratefully. _I don't know what I'd do if I was still afraid of heights!_

Lowering herself down just slightly, she looked around. She could feel the callouses forming on her hands, but she didn't care; there was a wooden platform just a few feet away. Rocking her body back and forth, she managed to get the rope to swing. After a few minutes of rocking, she was nearly close enough to reach the platform.

_Almost there!_

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she jumped.

The Duke knocked on the door three times. Not hearing an answer, he opened it and walked into the room. Katara wasn't there.

Taking one long look at the rope and window, he turned around and ran.

_Jet is **not** gonna be happy about this_, he thought grimly.

_Where the heck are they!_ Katara screamed internally as she continued her fruitless search for a rope to the ground. _Did they hide them or something!_

Feeling the footsteps of someone coming through the wood beneath her feet, she quickly hid in the branches of a nearby tree. A boy she'd never seen before walked by, oblivious to her. Once he was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief. Just walking around in this place was bound to get her caught, so she needed to get away as soon as possible.

Sure that the boy was gone, she timidly stepped out of the leaves to continue her search for a route to the ground.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" Came a sardonic voice from behind her. "A runaway?"

Katara groaned. "Jet..."

"Well," Zuko stated as he observed the scene in front of him. "As least it's a _big_ treehouse."


	33. Treehouse Rescue Part 2

**Chapter 33 - Treehouse Rescue (Part 2)**

* * *

Katara groaned. "Jet..."

"You know, Katara, I'm actually impressed," Jet told her, trademark stalk of grass hanging out of his mouth, smirking as he slowly crept closer. "I never thought you'd have the guts to go out the window."

"Don't underestimate me," she warned, assuming a fighting stance. Jet laughed, and her eyes narrowed.

"Fighting is for boys," he told her. Suddenly, she noticed how close he was to her. How long had he been sneaking up like that? And now he was raising his arms, like he was going to try to get her...

"Bite me!" Katara growled, delivering a swift kick to Jet's groin before he could make any witty responses. He doubled over in pain, clutching his private regions. It was no small satisfaction to see that damn blade of grass fall out of his mouth.

"...bitch..." Jet spat, glaring at her. She grinned, stuck out her tongue, and ran like hell.

"Is that all of them?" Zuko asked, gesturing to the pile of unconscious kids while wiping a few beads of sweat off his face with his arm.

"I doubt it," Aang answered.

"Why are all these kids here, anyway?" The Fire prince wondered aloud.

"They all lost their families and homes to the Fire Nation," Sokka said solemnly. "Jet takes them in and teaches them to fight. They call themselves the Freedom Fighters."

"...are you joking?" Zuko asked seriously, giving the other two boys a funny look. "I've heard about them. Stealing supplies, attacking troops, causing trouble." He paused, looking thoughtful. "I never would have imagined they'd be a bunch of kids."

"You shouldn't underestimate people just because of their age," Aang told him wisely, walking away with Sokka.

"I learned that lesson a long time ago," Zuko muttered under his breath as he followed.

"Hey! Didja see what she did to Jet?" Smellerbee whispered in a strange mix between sympathy, fear, and awe.

"Ouch," winced Longshot.

"That had to hurt," agreed Sneers.

"Let's get her!" Pipsqueak said, and charged.

Katara felt something shaking the platform. She turned around and paled.

"Oh crap."

Jet struggled to get to his feet as the pain began to dissipate, cursing Katara in language he typically reserved for Fire Nation soldiers and woodpeckers pecking at his treehouse. Grabbing his trusty stalk of grass off the floor, he began limping slowly towards the sound of fighting in the distance.

By the time he got there, the ruckus has stopped, half of his fighters were in an undignified unconscious heap, and his limp was gone. But at least he knew which way they were going.

"Uwah!" Katara cried as she lashed out with her water whip. She'd already taken out Longshot and Smellerbee with relative ease; Pipsqueak, the Duke, and Sneers were proving a bit harder.

It made sense, she supposed; Longshot was an archer and Smellerbee used swords, while Pipsqueak, Sneers, and the Duke needed no weapons to fight. Sneers was especially tough, showing his hand-to-hand combat skills with every move he made. Avoiding Pipsqueak wasn't hard, but he was just too massive to fight. The Duke was only a problem when he got close enough to wrestle her to the ground.

Alone, they wouldn't have been a problem. But together, Katara knew she was going to need more water to defeat them.

Honestly, it was a matter of luck he'd even heard it coming. Mere moments before the Jet's sword would have come into lethal contact with his shoulder, Zuko heard the _zing_ of the weapon cutting through the air.

Spinning around, Zuko glared at the other boy.

"The hell are you?" He demanded.

"I'm Jet," he replied cockily, the grass in his mouth moving up and down as he chewed on it. "And who are _you_?"

Zuko raised his arm straight out, and before he knew it, Jet found his precious grass flaming at the end.

"Firebender, then?" It wasn't a question so much as a statement. Ahead of them, Aang and Sokka continued down the wooden walk, oblivious.

"Where's Katara?" Zuko growled threateningly. Jet grinned.

"Oh, so _you're_ the boyfriend she mentioned," Jet confirmed. "You look Fire Nation to me."

Zuko said nothing, but he figured the jets of fire exuding from his fists were more than enough of an answer. Jet's grin widened.

"You know what we do to the Fire Nation around here?" He paused, drawing both his swords. "We kill 'em."


	34. Treehouse Rescue Part 3

Previously on _Superstition_:

After getting kidnapped by Jet, Katara makes an escape attempt but ends up fighting Jet's lackeys alone. In the meantime, the boys are coming to rescue her, and Zuko and Jet meet.

* * *

**Chapter 34 – Treehouse Rescue (Part 3)**

* * *

"You know what we do to the Fire Nation around here? We kill 'em."

Zuko ignored him, his palms flaming and a frown on his face.

"Where is Katara?" He demanded again, enunciating each word carefully. Jet drew his curved swords menacingly and smirked.

"Funny that you're Fire Nation," he began casually. "Y'know, Katara's mother was killed by your people."

Zuko did not, in fact, know this, but he did his best to feign apathy.

"I no longer belong to the Fire Nation," he said simply. "But that doesn't matter. Where is she?"

Jet still ignored him. "She'd be a lot better of without you, y'know that? A waterbender and a firebender? It'd never work out." Jet shook his head in mock pity. "'Sides, I can't have the Fire Nation taking my woman, now can I?"

"_Your_ woman?" Zuko growled. "Katara isn't an _object_, bastard! Now tell me where she is, before I _make_ you."_ Dammit, where're those broadswords when I need them!_

Jet laughed. "Make me? Don't you know who you're dealing with?"

"Your name is Jet, you lead the Freedom Fighters, and Katara froze you to a tree," Zuko deadpanned.

"Trifles, trifles. Now where we were? Oh yeah, I was gonna kill you because you're Fire Nation!" Quick as a flash, Jet leaped forward in an attempt to snag Zuko's arm with his hooks. Zuko dodged backwards, sending a burst of fire towards his opponent. Jet deflected the flames with his swords and charged.

Zuko skirted backwards again, grimacing. Under normal circumstances this guy would be no problem, but he was still healing from his fight with Azula. Katara had been able to heal the external wounds, but not all of the internal ones. He was in no condition to fight, for sure. His chest was still in pain when he moved, and though he tried not to show it, Jet noticed.

"Oh, look, the little Fire Nation boy is hurt," he cooed mockingly. Zuko growled.

"You'd fight a wounded man?" He spat. "That's cowardly, even for a lowlife like you."

Suddenly, Jet was angry. "Does the _Fire Nation_ care if you're hurt? Does the _Fire Nation_ care that you're weaker? Does the _Fire Nation_ have mercy? _Do they!_"

"This isn't about the Fire Nation!" Zuko snarled. "It's about Katara!"

With a roar, Jet twirled one of his swords back and forth in front of himself while advancing towards Zuko, finishing with a thrust. Zuko flung his arms forward, creating a shield of flames. Jet cut through the fire, pouncing on Zuko's chest.

"Oof!" Zuko grunted as he landing hard on his back, Jet on top of him. Growling, Zuko pushed Jet off with his hands, burning him in the process. Planting his hands firmly on the walk, he hoisted himself up and assumed a fighting stance, oblivious to the smoldering wood beneath him. A fierce expression on his face, he launched a several quick bursts of fire, each one propelling Jet a little farther away as he tried to avoid getting burned.

Panting, Zuko took a good look at his enemy. His clothes and skin were singed, and Zuko could tell that he was winded too. They stood there for a minute, each watching the other and catching his breath.

"Not bad, Fire Nation," Jet huffed, glaring challengingly at Zuko. "But I've fought worse than you."

"Same," Zuko countered, resisting the urge to touch his scar. He took a deep breath and lifted the toes of his right foot while keeping the heel grounded. Stomping his toes down three times in quick succession, he shot a series of flames towards the other boy's feet. Jet stumbled backwards, taken off guard, and Zuko wasn't done. Abandoning his firebending momentarily, he attacked Jet with a barrage of hand-to-hand combat moves.

Quickly getting into his fighting stance, he pivoted on one foot then switched to the other as he executed a complete turn and landed on one of Jet's burnt feet. As the other boy careened backwards, Zuko's hand sliced through the air and struck the soft skin of Jet's left wrist. The firm hit loosened his grip on the hooked sword, and with the same hand Zuko slapped the sword out of Jet's grasp. It clattered loudly as it hit the wooden walk, then bounced off the side and fell to the ground below.

Snarling, Jet flipped his remaining sword around, brandishing the daggered edge towards Zuko. It sliced through the skin and muscle of his arm, and he hissed in pain, feeling the hot blood run down his arm. Swiveling sideways to protect his injured arm, he placed a high kick to Jet's stomach, sending him flying backwards.

Sprawled on the ground, Jet used his remaining sword to prop himself up and leap towards Zuko in one fluid motion. He held his sword like a bat, swinging it at Zuko's head. Zuko dropped into a crouch, kicking one of Jet's feet out from under him. Jet lost his balance and reeled backwards, but caught Zuko's shirt with his hooked sword. Zuko found himself being jerked forwards as Jet fell, and he felt a slight stinging sensation where the hook had caught the skin of his chest.

With a violent sideways twist, Zuko narrowly avoided being impaled by the sword. He landed on his back right next to Jet, and they simultaneously jumped to their feet, facing each other with bitter aggression.

"Give it up, Fire Nation," Jet spat, slicing his sword through the air with a _zing _and settling into a battle stance. "Katara doesn't belong around the likes of you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zuko growled back, baring his teeth.

"She's Water, you're Fire," he explained with a smirk, as if the reason were obvious. "You clash. You don't belong together."

"Go to hell!" Zuko roared, attacking with renewed vigor.

"Damn," Katara hissed, breathing heavily. She was currently cornered against a tree, surrounded by three angry boys, and completely out of water. Suddenly, as if by a miracle, she heard someone calling her name.

"Katara!" Sokka cried, running towards her with boomerang in hand. Aang waved his arms and bended a mighty river of wind, blowing Sneers, Pipsqueak, and the Duke a good ten feet back. Sokka wrapped his arms around his little sister, saying, "Good to see ya, sis."

"You guys came just in time," Katara told him, relieved. "I just ran out of water."

"Hey!" The Duke yelled. "We're still here!"

Katara ignored them. "Aang, where's Zuko?" She asked over her brother's shoulder.

Aang frowned uncertainly. "Uh... That way?" He offered, pointing in the direction they'd come from.

Katara facepalmed, muttering under her breath and storming off in the direction of Aang's finger. Glancing nervously at each other, Sokka and Aang followed closely behind her.

The Duke glared at her retreating back.

"What about us, dammit!"

Zuko stood in a sea of flames, facing Jet and his sword. The wood of the treehouse was charred black and had many deep cuts, and the branches of the surrounding trees were on fire, creating an aerial arena of flames and charcoal. Both of them were tired, and they knew this battle wouldn't—couldn't—last much longer.

Chests heaving, Jet and Zuko resorted to an impromptu staring contest, each waiting for the other to make a move.

"Zuko!" They suddenly heard in the distance. Turning in unison towards the voice, they realized that it was Katara.

Taking advantage of Jet's surprise, Zuko lunged towards him with a burst of fire. Caught off guard, he toppled backwards and over the edge of the walk. Zuko walked to the edge, finding Jet dangling from the wood by a single hand, the other still clutching his sword. Zuko smirked as he stood over the other boy.

"I win, Jet," he proclaimed, promptly turning around and walking away. He could see Katara running towards him, Aang and Sokka in tow.

"Zuko!" She cried, grinning. Suddenly, her happy expression changed to one of horror. "Zuko, behind you!"

Without even thinking, Zuko spun around and surged towards Jet with a huge wall of fire. Jet screamed as he was thrown backwards off the walk. He was unlucky; he clawed for the edge of the walk, but missed. Zuko winced as he heard a soft _thump_ far below him. Then he felt a warm body pressed against him, and all thoughts of Jet vanished.

"Zuko," Katara breathed into his back as she hugged him from behind. "I was worried!"

She let go, and he turned to face her, giving her a weird look. "_You_ were worried?" He asked skeptically.

"Yes! And look at you, you're hurt. I'll heal that as soon as we get out of here. I'm out of water," she explained. He nodded wordlessly, looking back at Aang and Sokka, who were watching the scene with a mixture of interest and annoyance at being ignored.

Suddenly, a large tree branch fell onto the walk, and a bridge opposite them collapsed.

"Uh, guys? I think it's time to leave," Sokka suggested, only slightly panicked. "C'mon, I saw a few of those ropes to the ground a little ways back." He turned and led the way, and the group followed.

"I'll go first," Sokka said, pulling the rope and clumsily getting dragged towards the ground. Aang followed him on the same rope, using his airbending to keep from falling.

Katara turned to Zuko and grinned. "Thanks, Zuko. I knew you'd come rescue me," she said happily, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. He smirked back at her, but she could have sworn she saw the faintest tinge of pink on his cheeks. Grabbing her around the waist, he reached for the last remaining rope with his good arm, and together they descended to the forest floor.


	35. Nocturnal Encounters

**Chapter 35 - Nocturnal Encounters**

* * *

"Zuko, I _told_you not to move around too much!"

He sighed, pausing in his routine. "I'm fine, Katara. Really."

Glaring daggers at him, she said, "Zuko, I can't heal internal wounds yet! That means you're still injured!"

"I don't look injured."

"But you are!"

Zuko sighed again, executing another short set of firebending moves—sans the fire—before replying. "It's been three days since the fight. If I wasn't healed by now, I'd deserve to still be hurt." With an air of finality, he continued his exercises.

Rolling her eyes, Katara went back to folding and packing the sleeping mats. Finally, three days after rescuing her, the gang was ready to move on. Aang had woken up the previous morning mumbling something about a dream of a town nearby, and how his earthbending master would be there. He could barely recall the dream later, but insisted upon going to the nearest town to search for the mystery master. The problem, however, lay in the actual task of getting there; they had no idea which way the town was.

Of course, Katara was having problems herself, the most current of which was Zuko. More specifically, a _shirtless_ Zuko. And this particular problem kept distracting her from packing camp. After several minutes of frequent glances and sneaked looks, she finally gave up.

"Zuko."

Wincing at her tone, he paused again and groaned, "What?"

"Why, exactly,does your meditation or practice or whatever it is, require you to take your shirt off?"

"Eh?" Zuko said stupidly, stunned by the question. Then, feigning a frown, he asked, "Should I put it back on?"

"That's not what I'm saying at all," Katara answered quickly, shaking her head.

Zuko grinned at her. "That's what I thought," he said, and returned to his firebending motions.

She huffed in reply, but didn't argue. Facing away from her, Zuko's grin widened.

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"We've been flying for hours, and I don't see any town," Sokka complained loudly as he stretched. "Can't you just say it? We're going the wrong way!"

"We are not going the wrong way," Katara corrected. "We're just lost."

"I'm sorry!" Aang cried from Appa's head. "My instinct told me to go this way!"

"Instinct?" Katara asked incredulously. "Don't you remember what happened last time we followed 'instinct'?"

Aang cringed. "Yeah, but I was hoping that my instinct was better than Sokka's."

"What about that town that the old man went to?" Sokka wondered. "Why didn't we go there?"

"That wasn't the town," Aang said.

Katara eyed him funnily. "How do you know?"

"I just know," he replied. "It was the wrong town. The one we're looking for is bigger, and it's not by the ocean."

"Oh, well that narrows it down, doesn't it?" Sokka asked sarcastically. "So that only leaves... _almost every town in the Earth Kingdom_. Yeah, we'll find it in no time."

"Sokka, you aren't helping!" Katara admonished. "But really, Aang, how are we going to find this town? And assuming we _do_ find the town, how will we find this earthbending master? Do you even know what he looks like?"

"Well... no. But I'll know him when I see him. Trust me, Katara." He offered her a convincing smile before turning his back to the group and refocusing on his navigation. Zuko exchanged a significant glance with Katara, who simply shrugged.

"I do trust you, Aang," she called to him. He didn't react, but she knew he'd heard her.

The gang remained silent for the next few hours, until Sokka finally pointed in the distance and cried, "City, straight ahead!"

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And so Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation found himself in a staring contest with a lemur.

With sunset fast approaching, they decided to make camp a mile or so outside of town. It was far enough away to not attract the attention of the residents, but close enough to walk to. Katara and Sokka had fallen asleep quickly, and Aang had followed soon after, but Zuko was having problems falling asleep. Most of these problems could be attributed to the lemur currently occupying his sleeping bag.

"Move," he growled softly, not wanting to wake the others. He waved his hands in a shooing motion, giving the creature the meanest scowl he could muster. "Get out of my bed!"

The lemur didn't reply. Zuko silently wondered if this was a good or bad thing. Instead, he stared expectantly up at Zuko. Glaring, Zuko stomped off into the surrounding forest, probably to find a good stick to beat the little rat off with. Before he knew it, he found himself lost in thought and facing the border wall of the city. Curiosity piqued, he easily climbed up the trees and hopped over the stone wall.

_I'll just look around_, he thought to himself. _We could use some information on this town before we just step right out into the open. Especially on whether or not the Fire Nation is here._

Silent as the grave, Zuko wandered around the town, checking behind corners before moving on and keeping constant vigilance for anyone who might accidentally discover him. He was relieved to find no evidence of the Fire Nation army occupation of the town, which meant that it was most likely safe for himself and Aang. After all, they were both fugitives now, with their own wanted posters and rewards.

Suddenly Zuko realized, _I should look for a weapon. My broadswords were still on the ship, and I need to avoid firebending from now on, whenever I can._

Being a fairly small city, it didn't take long for him to find the weaponry shop. Standing in front of the building, he had another realization: he had no money. This meant that the chances of being able to buy himself broadswords was slim to none. Which, in turn, meant that he would have to resort to theft.

_Stealing?_ Questioned Sensible Zuko. _That's not what I'd call honorable._

Groaning quietly at his sudden pang of conscience, he jingled the doorknob experimentally. Locked, of course. Which meant he would have to use an alternative method of entry, most likely a window. Fortunately for Zuko, the window was closed but not locked, and he had no trouble sliding it open. Catlike and graceful, he climbed through the window and stood completely still for a few minutes, letting his eyes adjust to the lack of light and listening for any noises. Content with the absolute silence, he set off looking for a suitable set of swords.

The shop being a bit cramped, it took him only a few minutes to locate the broadswords section. There were several pairs to choose from, and none were particularly well-crafted, but he knew that beggars can't be choosers. Grabbing a belted sheath, he strapped it on and slid the blades in. Just as he was about to leave, he also snatched a few small daggers, then disappeared out the open window, making sure to close it behind him.

Taking off in the direction he had come, he vaguely recognized the sound of distant cheering, but ignored it. He needed to get back to camp and find a way to conceal the broadswords; he doubted his new companions would approve of thievery. The noise was getting fainter as he went farther, and he knew he was almost at the wall.

"Who's there?" Called a voice out of the dark. Zuko stiffened and stopped abruptly, not responding. The newcomer sighed, and Zuko realized that it belonged to a girl, and that she was behind him. "I know you're there. I can see you. And if you're trying to get to the tournament, you're going the wrong way."

He decided to venture to speak. "Tournament?" He said carefully. "I'm not going to a tournament."

"Then what are you doing?" The girl asked in a surly tone.

"I'm... on my way home," he lied.

"Oh really? I don't believe you. Where do you live?"

"Why do you care? Don't you have a tournament to go watch?" Zuko countered. "Besides, little girls shouldn't be out alone after dark. It's dangerous."

"Dangerous?" The girl repeated amusedly. "You sound like my parents. And actually, I do have a tournament go watch. Gotta size up the competition, if you can call it that..." The girl muttered, walking away. Sighing in relief, Zuko continued on his way, and soon scaled the wall and was walking back to camp.

And damn it all, that lemur was still in his bed.


	36. Earth Rumble

**Chapter 36 - Earth Rumble**

* * *

"Why did it have to be green?" Zuko pouted, tugging gently at the olive tunic.

"It's not like it came in red," Katara pointed out. "We're in the Earth Kingdom. Everything is green."

Zuko sighed, but refused to agree out loud. Releasing the tunic, he wondered how exactly Katara had managed to get him into this outfit. Although, to be fair, he _had_ needed new clothes. And she was right about everything in the Earth Kingdom being green. Sure, there were different shades of green—at least according to Katara—but to him, lime and jade and sage and emerald were all the same thing: green. A very ugly, spinach-colored shade of green, to be exact.

"How come you get to wear blue?" He asked in a rather impetuous tone.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Because _I_ didn't get my clothes fried by my crazy sister and chopped up by some equally crazy rebel."

"Not my fault."

"Maybe. But your clothes were still ruined."

And Zuko didn't have anything to say to that.

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"Katara! Zuko! You guys gotta try this!" Aang cried excitedly, waving a chopstick around excitedly. Katara wasn't sure what was on the end of said chopstick, but she _was_ sure that she didn't really want to eat whatever it was. It semi-resembled an uncooked octopus tentacle, though slightly skinnier and less tasty-looking.

"What is _that_?" Zuko gawked in disgust.

"Some sorta local plant, the Wabbleberry Vine or something like that," Sokka informed them through a mouthful of the strange food. "S'really good! Wansum?"

"Um, I'll pass, thanks," Katara answered dryly, cringing.

"Me too," Zuko said quickly. "I'm, uh, not really hungry. And Katara was just going to take me to see some... er... trees? Right, Katara?"

She glared. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" She grabbed Zuko by the wrist with one hand and waved goodbye with the other. "See you guys later!"

"Uh, have fun?" Aang attempted as she led Zuko away.

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"Trees? _Trees?_ Is that the best you could come up with?" Katara fumed as she practically dragged Zuko away.

"Hey, it was short notice!" He retorted. "And it worked, didn't it?"

"_Trees?_"

"... shaddup. It got you out of that Wobbleberry or Wabbleberry or whatever." He paused. "And quit dragging me, it's-"

"Embarrassing? Unladylike? Crude?" She suggested crossly.

"I was going to say 'painful,' but those work too," he smirked. Katara rolled her eyes, but let go of his wrist all the same. His grin widened. "Now, don't we have some trees to go look at?"

She grinned back.

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"Hey, hey, check this out!" Aang yelled across the square as Katara and Zuko approached several hours later. Pulling a scroll out of apparently nowhere, he unfurled it dramatically.

"_Earth Rumble?_" Katara asked skeptically. "Sounds like one those macho competitions that boys likes so much."

"Katara, sometimes you are so intuitive, it scares me," Sokka said with mock amazement. She glared at him, but ignored his comment.

"And _why_ are we interested in this Earth Rumble?" She inquired.

"This is the town. My earthbending master is here, I can feel it. And what better place to find an earthbending master than at an earthbending competition?"

"He's right," Zuko interjected. "The tournament is our best chance."

She nodded her head. "Looks like Earth Rumble it is."

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Five hours and forty-seven minutes later, Katara was regretting her agreement to come to this stupid competition. Watching earthbenders throw each other around and bend the earth was fun and all, but only for so long. Meanwhile, Aang and Sokka were still watching avidly, and Zuko was trying (but failing) to hide his interest.

"The Boulder wins again!" Roared the announcer as yet another amateur earthbender was violently flung out of the stadium. The huge, muscular man raised his arms in victory. Katara had lost count of how many of his opponents has already been defeated, due mostly to falling asleep three hours into the tournament.

"And now, the fight you've all been waiting for," the announcer hollered to the wild crowd. "The Boulder versus..."

The crowd fell silent as the arena darkened. Suddenly, several spotlights—created by torchlight reflecting off giant mirrored cones on the ceiling—converged at the entrance. Aang gasped, his eyes growing wide. Standing in the light was a single diminutive figure, holding a massive belt up above her head. The crowed immediately went wild.

"The Blind Bandit!"


	37. The Blind Bandit

**Chapter 37 - The Blind Bandit**

* * *

"The Blind Bandit!"

Sokka 'boo'ed loudly, but his voice was lost in the cheer of the crowd. Katara saw Aang frowning, worried.

"Don't worry, Aang," she tried to console him. "I'm sure she's not really blind."

He said nothing, his eyes trained on the girl as she strolled confidently out into the arena. Standing opposite to the Boulder, she looked tiny and weak. Only the arrogant smirk on her face gave any indication that she knew what she was doing.

"The Boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young blind girl," the massive man said slowly, looking somewhat confused.

The girl grinned wider. "Sounds to me like you're scared, Boulder!"

The Boulder blinked rapidly, unused to little girls insulting him. "The Boulder is over his conflicted feelings, and now he's ready to bury you in a rock-a-lanche!" He struck a heroic pose, but the Blind Bandit only laughed.

"Whenever you're ready... The Pebble!" She threw her head back and laughed even harder.

"It's on!"

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Everything seemed to pass in slow motion for Aang.

The Boulder's attack—the girl's widening grin—her quick defense and offense—an track of ripped earth racing towards the larger man—the Boulder getting knocked off his feet—a resounding boom as he was flung into the far wall—the crowd's wild cheer as the girl raised her arms in triumph.

And suddenly, he knew.

"It's her."

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"Huh?" Katara turned to him, giving him a weird look.

"It's her." The boy couldn't take his eyes off her. "She's the one. My earthbending master."

"Are you sure?" She asked again. "She's so young..."

"Age has nothing to do with skill," Zuko remarked, and Katara did not miss the slightly bitter note in his voice.

"It's her," Aang said with finality.

"To make things a little more interesting, I'm offering up this sack of gold pieces to anyone who can defeat the Blind Bandit!" Cheers were heard throughout the stadium. "What? No one dares to face her?"

Before Katara could stop him, Aang jumped from his seat and practically glided into the arena. "I will!"

The crowd boo'ed again, but Sokka cheered. "Go, Aang! Avenge the Boulder!"

The Blind Bandit bared her teeth in an aggressive smirk. "Do people really want to see two little girls fighting out here?"

Nervously, Aang raised his hands in a friendly gesture. "I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you," he said passively.

"Boo!" Sokka screamed. "No talking!"

Katara smacked him, and Zuko rolled his eyes. "Don't boo at him!"

The girl thrust her arm forward, delivering a shock wave of rock to her opponent. Aang airbended out of the way with little effort, and the Blind Bandit frowned as he landed. "Somebody's a little light on his feet. What's your fighting name, the Fancy Dancer?"

Aang smiled and shrugged as the Blind Bandit shot a bullet of rock at him. Again, he easily dodged the earth, and the girl growled. "Where'd you go?"

Landing behind her, Aang yelled, "Please, wait!"

"There you are!"

In the blink of an eye, Aang had deflected her attack with a gust of wind so strong it blew her into the wall, out of the arena. The crowed cheered as she stalked away, but Aang paid them no attention. He raced after the girl, calling, "Please listen! I need an earthbending teacher, and I think it's supposed to be you!"

The ex-champion didn't even bother to turn around to face him. "Whoever you are, just leave me alone."

"Wait!"

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"I'm going after him," Katara said confidently, standing up. Zuko placed his hand on her shoulder, effectively stopping her.

"Maybe you should let him handle this himself," he suggested.

Katara scrunched up her nose, confused. "Why?"

Looking sideways, Zuko said softly, "He's gonna have to learn to deal with girls _some_time."

She rolled her eyes, but sat back down nonetheless.

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The Blind Bandit stomped her way out of the Earth Rumble cave, rocks falling around her as she proceeded.

"Wait!"

Aang jumped lightly and landed directly in front of her, cutting her off. She growled.

"What's the big idea, Twinkle Toes?" She practically snarled at him.

"I'm the Avatar, and I need an earthbending master," he said shakily. "I think it's supposed to be you."

"Me?" She said sarcastically. "And why's that?"

"I-I had a dream about you!" Aang stuttered sheepishly, rubbing the back of his bald head anxiously. Grimacing, the girl shoved her way past him, clearly uninterested. "You're the one who listens to the earth!"

The Blind Bandit stopped.

Encouraged, Aang continued. "That's how you do it, isn't it? How you can fight, even though you can't see? You listen to the earth, right?"

She said nothing, standing still like a... well, like a stone.

"You're an amazing earthbender! I've never seen anyone like you. You're—"

"Save it for someone who actually likes being flattered," the girl deadpanned, frowning at him again. "You're not gonna sucker me into teaching you. Why don't you try the local earthbending academy?" She suggested sweetly, smiling with sugary falsehood. "I'm sure they'd be a much better choice for someone like _you_." She began walking again, ignoring Aang.

"Wait!" He called, chasing her. "At least tell me your name!"

She hesitated before muttering, "Toph. My name is Toph."

Aang smiled. "Well then, Toph, I challenge you to a fight!"

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"What!"

"Katara, calm down!" Sokka cried, waving his arms frantically in front of her. "It'll be fine! Aang already beat her once!"

"You challenged a _blind__girl_ to a fight!" She shrieked. "Do you have _any_ idea how wrong that is?"

"What do you mean?" Aang asked with true innocence. "She won against the Boulder!"

"She's _blind!_"

"She's not as helpless and weak as you think she is," he retorted calmly, staring into the sunset. He appeared to be deep in thought. Katara frowned, but wisely dropped the subject.

"When is the fight?" She asked in a resigned tone.

"Tomorrow at noon."

"Oh. Hn." Suddenly smiling, she continued, "Well, it's been a great rock-throwing contest and all, but I never got to finish showing Zuko those _trees_." Grabbing his hand rather roughly, she dragged the befuddled boy away. "See you guys later!"

Aang looked at Sokka, who appeared to be about as confused as he was himself.

"Uh, Sokka, what's so great about the trees around here?" Aang asked.

Sokka shook his head. "I have no idea, Aang. No idea."

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"I hate you," Zuko growled once they were safely hidden in the forest. Katara laughed, knowing his insult contained no real malice. "Haven't you gotten over the tree thing yet?"

"Nope," she replied cheerily. "Now shut up and kiss me."

Zuko was only too happy to acquiesce.


	38. The Arrest

**Chapter 38 - The Arrest**

* * *

It was nearing one o'clock as the gang stood just outside of town, waiting for their opponent in a rocky clearing.

"She's late."

Katara nodded. There wasn't much to say. "Maybe she forgot?"

"More like she chickened out!" Sokka crowed, promptly disappearing into a hole in the ground.

"Who's a chicken?" Toph sneered from above him.

Sokka whimpered. "When did _you_ get here?"

"I'm glad you showed up!" Aang said enthusiastically, clearly cheered at her arrival. "What took you so long?"

"It's hard to tell time when you're blind," she told him matter-of-factly. No one argued. "Can we just get this over with?"

Katara rolled her eyes, but kept her voice even. "If you lose, you have to teach Aang earthbending, deal?"

"And if I win, then you guys have to leave me alone. Got it," Toph agreed, settling into a fighting stance.

"Um, when do we star—ahhh!" Aang cried as the ground crumbled beneath him, forcing him to airbend off the unstable ground. Toph frowned as he disappeared from her 'sight.'

"You can't win, Twinkle Toes," she called confidently. Stomping her bare foot on the earth, rock fragments shot up from the ground in all directions. Zuko calmly moved out of the way, while Katara and Sokka screamed, coving their heads—though Sokka was knocked over anyway. Aang took a blow to the chest and was forcibly shoved backwards into a wall of stone. He crumpled to the ground, groaning.

"Get up, Aang!" Katara yelled. "Get up!"

"Is that all you got?" Toph jeered, striding towards him. Aang struggled to his feet, a new tenacity clear in his eyes. Just as the girl flung another array of rock towards him, he deflected it with a swing of his staff. She immediately twisted her ankles into the earth, mud covering her feet and rooting her into the ground.

A (somewhat) fierce battle cry erupted from Aang, and he charged forward, determined to win.

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"How much longer is this going to take?" Zuko complained. "They've been at it for at least twenty minutes now."

Katara rolled her eyes. "I'm sure it won't be much longer."

"Until what? They both collapse from exhaustion?" Zuko sighed. "They're on the same level. No one is going to win this fi—"

"Lady Toph!" Called a voice from edge of the surrounding forest.

"Crap!" Toph erupted angrily, momentarily forgetting her battle. Immediately, she was hit by one of Aang's whirling air spheres with enough force to knock her over and roll her a full fifteen feet across the earth. She hit her head and landed sprawled on her stomach, unconscious. Katara and Aang both ran to make sure she was alright.

"Lady Toph!" The two men's yells were more urgent now. Their charge was hurt, and they rushed to her side. "Over here, men!" Four more men wearing the same uniforms emerged from the trees, moving towards Aang rather than the fallen girl. "Arrest that boy! He injured Lady Toph!"

"Hey, she agreed to this fight!" Katara said angrily. "Stay away from him!"

"Drop the staff, boy," warned one of the guards, his hand on his sword's handle. "We're taking you into custody."

"For what?" Katara cried. "He hasn't done anything wrong!"

"On the contrary, miss, he's harmed a member of the noble family," another man told her placidly. "And you'll need to come with us too."

"What?" Aang, Zuko, and Sokka exploded simultaneously.

"You're an accessory to the crime," he explained to her. For a few moments Katara simply stared at him, too stunned to speak. Then a coy smile spread across her face, and she thrust her arms out in front of her, wrists turned upwards.

"I understand," she told him calmly. "Go ahead and arrest me. Aang, you too. We're criminals, you know." While the man was tying a rope around her wrists, she winked at Zuko and Sokka, still standing dumbstruck on the sidelines. "Oh, wait! I almost forgot!" Katara moved away from the guard—who, curiously, made no effort to stop her—and began walking back towards Zuko and Sokka.

"Oh, are they with you, too?" The guard asked Aang, disinterested. He shook his head.

"Never seen them in my life," the boy answered innocently. He didn't know what Katara was up to, but he was sure she had a plan.

"I almost forgot my pet lemur!" Katara cooed, ushering Momo into her arms—which was easier said than done when one's hands are literally tied. "Okay, we're ready. Let's go, Aang."

Zuko and Sokka could only stare helplessly the men carried Toph away, Aang and Katara in tow.

"...what just happened?" Zuko asked blankly.

Sokka facepalmed.

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"You know, for prison food, this isn't bad," Katara commented as she plopped another morsel into her mouth. "In fact, it's better than what we usually eat, don't you think, Aang?"

The younger boy made a vague nodding motion and took a big mouthful of food, mumbling something incoherent enough to be deniable later. It was never a good idea to insult Katara's cooking, after all.

Katara sighed. "How much longer are we gonna be here, anyway? I'm bored." She paused, and suddenly grimaced. "Oh man, I sound like Zuko, don't I? 'How much longer?'" she imitated in a grumpy voice.

"You sound just like him!" Aang laughed. "How do you think Zuko and Sokka are doing together, anyway?"

She mimed deep contemplation. "Oh, it's only been a few hours, so I'm sure they'll have killed each other by now." She giggled. "To tell you the truth, I'm more worried about Appa. I know we stayed with him last night, but the thought of those boys being the only ones with him tonight makes me a little nervous."

"Yeah," Aang mused soberly. "What do you think they're doing?"

Noticing the change in the mood, Katara quickly said, "I bet they're planning some sort 'rescue attempt.' Except that I'll end up being the one rescuing everyone. Again." She mocked a sigh. "I won't always be around to be the hero, you know." She laughed.

Aang eyed her worriedly. "Where will you be?"

"Well, when the war's over and we've won, and everything is peaceful," she began in a hushed voice, "I'd like to get married and have a family and all that, y'know?"

Aang sidled up to her. "Yeah? With who?" He asked innocently

Katara blushed, then remembered that Aang and Sokka didn't know about her and Zuko yet. "Oh, I don't know yet! I'm only fourteen!" She forced a laugh, and Aang did the same. Nonetheless, the cell's atmosphere was noticeably thicker.

Just then, a guard came to unlock the door and solemnly said, "The Lord and Lady will see you now."

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"If you don't shut up in the next five seconds, I swear to the gods I'm going to set you on fire."


	39. The Bei Fong Dilemma

**Chapter 39 - The Bei Fong Dilemma**

* * *

"If you don't shut up in the next five seconds, I swear to the gods I'm going to set you on fire."

"My baby sister just got arrested! _Arrested!_" Sokka was blabbering hysterically. "She has a _criminal record_ ! And I was supposed to be looking out for her, making sure she didn't get in trouble!"

"I'm warning you..."

"I'm a failure of a big brother!"

"Just because you're Katara's brother does _not_ mean I will hesitate in frying you to a crisp."

"How will I ever be able to face my father?" Sokka moaned. "I'm so ashamed!"

Zuko lit up one hand with a fire dagger and pointed it directly at Sokka. "If you don't stop talking _right now_, I will kill you." Sokka stopped talking. "_Agni_, I have a headache."

Several seconds of silence passed before Sokka mumbled, "Er, can you not point that at me?"

"Oh, sorry."

The dagger fizzled away with a slight hissing sound.

"Thanks."

Several more seconds of silence.

Zuko sighed. "I guess we should be coming up with some sort of rescue plan, eh?"

"What, like you and me rescuing Katara and Aang from the clutches of the evil Fire Nation spies?"

"No, I meant more like _me_ rescuing Katara and Aang from the clutches of—wait, what was that last part?"

"Evil Fire Nation spies?"

"...you do know who you're talking to, right?" Zuko got a blank stare in response, and groaned. "They're earthbenders, not Fire Nation spies, idiot."

"You don't know that for sure."

"...yes, I do."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do!"

"No, you-"

"SHUT UP!"

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"Lord Lao will see you now," said a somber guard, quietly ushering them into the huge room. Inside waited a man and woman seated in plush chairs, whom she assumed to be Lord and Lady Bei Fong. Sitting in a smaller chair beside them was Toph, clothed in a silk dress and looking very wealthy, the epitome of a daughter of the rich.

Trying her best to look well-bred and demure, Katara gracefully carried herself in, kneeling politely. Aang partially ruined her act by practically bouncing in, but she ignored him as best she could.

"I am Lao Bei Fong, the ruler of this town. You must be the pair that attacked my daughter," the man began in a soft baritone. "What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Aang began to speak, but Katara raised a hand to cover his mouth. "We're very sorry, Lord Bei Fong, but we feel that there's been a mistake. We did not attack your daughter."

"Then if you would be so kind as to tell me your version of the story?" It was less of a question and more of a thinly-veiled command.

"Aang here is the Avatar, and he needs an earthbending teacher. He challenged Toph to a fight, and the agreement went that if he won, Toph had to be his teacher," she explained.

"Toph is still on the basics of earthbending, and I fear that her disability will prevent her from ever mastering the art."

"I'm sure she's better than you think," Aang blurted. "Have you ever seen her fight?"

"My daughter is _blind_," Lao said, as if talking to the terminally stupid. "She can barely function, let alone fight."

Neither Aang nor Katara missed Toph's eyes twitching at this statement, and Katara took back control of the conversation. "Lord Bei Fong, why don't we ask Toph herself what happened?"

Lao looked puzzled. "Why?"

Aang frowned and said, "With all due respect, Lord Bei Fong, Toph is blind, not dumb."

"Ah... I suppose you're right," Lao admitted as though the thought had never occurred to him before. "Uh, Toph, dear, why don't you tell us what happened?"

"I was just walking through the forest, and these two suddenly attacked me!" Toph said in a meek, feminine voice.

"You see?" Lao said. "It's just as they said."

Aang wasn't listening. "Why were you in the woods? Where were all your guards? I doubt they'd just leave you alone."

"I was taking a walk," Toph repeated in a slightly harder tone.

"But where were your guards?" Lao asked, now worried that his daughter was not receiving adequate protection. "Why weren't they with you?"

Aang and Katara exchanged grins as they watched Toph squirm. "You know, Toph," Katara said. "You have to teach Aang now. You lost that fight."

"I did not!" Toph exploded angrily. "I was distracted!"

"See?" Katara pointed triumphantly. "She admitted to fighting!"

"Toph?" Lady Bei Fong spoke for the first time, her tiny voice nearly shaking with worry. "Is this true?"

The room was silent for several moments before the girl whispered, "...yes."

"Toph, you've really been fighting? All this time?" Lao murmured. "This changes everything..."

Immediately, her head flew up in excitement. "It does?"

"Yes! I've been giving you far too much freedom!" Lao Bei Fong exclaimed. "From now on you will be cared for every hour of the day, and you will sleep with two guards in your room and have two with you at all times during the day."

"NO!" Toph was standing up now, her tiny hands balled into fists. "I'm not weak like you think I am, Dad! I love fighting! I love earthbending! And I hate being here, I hate being treated like I'm made of glass! Why can't you understand that?"

"Because you are _blind_, Toph! _Blind!_ You absolutely cannot fight!"

"Who cares if I'm blind? I don't!"

"Me either," Aang supplied. "I don't think you're weak at all, Toph. You're the best earthbender I've ever seen, and I would be honored to have you as my teacher."

The room went completely silent again, save for the heavy breathing of Toph and Lao. Finally, Lady Bei Fong spoke. "Guards, would you please escort these two back to their cell."

"Wait!" Aang cried as a guard seized him roughly by the arms. "Toph!"

But the guards had already closed the door.

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"Okay, how's this?" Sokka started, drawing his plan in the dirt with a stick. "We tunnel under the walls, sneak past the guards, steal the keys, get Katara and Aang, and sneak back out through the tunnel?"

"Great plan, genius," Zuko responded testily. "But what will we dig the tunnel with?"

Sokka raised his finger to make a point, wearing the expression of someone about to say something purely brilliant. This expression fell once he realized that he had no such ideas, and he slumped back against Appa's soft fur. "I dunno. What do you suggest?"

"I suggest that you stop coming up with stupid plans and let me think in peace."

"Momo?" Sokka asked.

"Come again?" Zuko wasn't sure he'd heard the other boy correctly. "'Mom'?"

"Momo!" Sokka exclaimed again. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought Katara took him," Zuko mused. Immediately the lemur jumped into his lap, and he unconsciously began stroking him. "Hey, what's on your leg?" Untying the parchment from the creature's leg, he unrolled the tiny note and read it aloud.

"Dear Zuko and Sokka,

I hope you're taking good care of Appa for us. We talked to the Bei Fongs, and I think we made some progress with Toph, but we need some more time. Do not, DO NOT, try to rescue us. We're fine. Take good care of yourselves and try not to kill each other, okay?

Love, Katara

PS: Aang says hi."

Zuko finished reading and rolled up the letter. "I guess that means we're stuck together tonight, doesn't it?" He slumped onto his sleeping bag. "Wake me up before sunrise and I'll kill you."

Sokka closed his eyes and laughed. Him? Up before sunrise? Preposterous.


	40. A Kidnapping, of Sorts

**Chapter 40 – A Kidnapping, Of Sorts**

* * *

"Katara, how are we going to get out of this?" Aang asked from across the cell, where he lay on his back spinning a globe of air.

"Good things come to those who wait, Aang," she replied for what felt like the hundredth time that night. She, at least, had listened to Gran Gran's wise proverbs. Even if she didn't abide by them.

"But we've been waiting for hours!" He whined.

"Patience is a virtue!"

"I'm bored!"

"Boredom comes from a boring mind."

"The cure for boredom is curiosity, and there's no cure for curiosity."

"Did the monks teach you that one? 'Cuz it sucks."

"Like 'patience is a virtue' is any better."

"Hey, that's from Gran Gran. If you've got a problem with it, take it up with her." Katara snickered. "I'd love to see you get in a fight with Gran Gran."

"...you want to see me fight an old lady?"

"No, Aang, I want to see you get your butt kicked by an old lady."

"Great. That's just great for my image. The Avatar, fighting old ladies and blind girls." He sighed, and Katara laughed.

"Relax, Aang," she promised. "We'll be out of here soon."

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Zuko was not in a good mood. It was nearing midnight, he was sure, and he still had yet to fall asleep. He wanted to believe that it was due to something he'd eaten—or not eaten, since Katara hadn't been around to make dinner and neither boy was particularly apt at cooking—or the rustling of the leaves of the forest, or Appa's snoring, but in truth, he was worried about Katara.

Oh, he had no doubt that she could hold her own in a fair fight. But that didn't cover _unfair_ fights, which were pretty likely given the circumstances. She could be locked up in some dark, underground cell. And since no one in town knew her, she could disappear without anyone noticing. In fact, they could potentially kill her and get away with it...

_Don't panic, Zuko,_ he told himself in vain. _Relax, Katara's fine. _

He wasn't convinced. But even as he folded up his sleeping bag and strapped on his stolen broadswords, he had a sinking feeling that Katara was going to be mad at him for this later.

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Aang had nearly fallen asleep by the time a rather large hole formed in the wall of their cell.

"Rise and shine, Twinkle Toes," came a gruff feminine voice from outside the cell.

"Whasgoinon?" Aang mumbled sleepily. "Toph?"

"Whaddya think? I'm rescuing you!" She motioned towards the hole and said, "What, do you have a ladies first policy or something? Move it, you two!"

Aang stumbled out of the cell and into the grass, damp from the nightly dew. "Toph? Why are you helping us escape?"

"I'm not," she answered with a mischievous grin. "I'm helping you kidnap me."

"You are?" Aang paused, clearly confused. "Why?"

"Because I'm sick of being treated like a paper doll. And I'm sick of having to fight in secret, and hiding who I really—"

"Aaugh!"

"...what was that?" Katara asked nervously, readying her hand at her water pouch.

"Someone just fell," Toph answered. "Make that two. Someone else is here, probably male."

"How do you know that?" Aang asked incredulously.

"Vibrations in the earth. He's coming this way!"

"We're ready." Katara unscrewed the lid of her water skin, bending a stream of water protectively in front of herself.

"There's guards coming," Toph muttered distractedly. "Seven—no, eight. I'll take care of them. Think you can handle this one on your own?" Katara nodded. "Good. Twinkle Toes, you're with me." She took off into the night, and Aang did his best to keep up with her. But Katara had her own enemy to worry about.

Mere seconds later she heard footsteps approaching, barely audible on the wet grass. She whirled around, flinging the water whip at the target and smirking as she felt it hit its mark.

"Ow!" She heard a voice cry in the dark. "Katara, is that you?"

She breathed in relief. "Do you know any _other_ waterbenders, Zuko?"

"Could have been Aang," he reasoned.

"Yeah, but then it probably wouldn't have hurt," she laughed and bended the water back into the pouch. Suddenly, her smile disappeared. "Zuko," she began slowly, "what are you doing here?"

_Crap, _Zuko winced inwardly. _I'm in trouble. _"Uh, rescuing you?" He mumbled hopefully.

"Didn't I specifically tell you _not_ to come rescue me?" She poked him in the chest menacingly. "Didn't I tell you that I had a plan?

"Uhh," Zuko answered intelligently.

"And where's Sokka?"

He had an answer to that one. "Sleeping. What else would he be doing at this hour?"

Katara had to admit that he had a point. "Let's get out of here. Toph and Aang might need our help."

Zuko grabbed her arm as she began to walk away. "What, no thank-you-for-rescuing-me kiss?"

"You didn't rescue me!"

"True," he pretended to ponder. "Well, how about a thank-you-for-trying-to-rescue-me kiss?"

She grinned. "I think I can manage that," she said as she stood on her toes to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, and deepened the kiss. Taken off guard and unbalanced, Katara toppled over and brought him down with her, landing on top of him.

"Missed me that much, eh?" He taunted from beneath her, causing her to blush. "You couldn't even wait until we were out of danger?"

"You're not that charming," she retorted, standing up and offering him a hand up. He took it and brushed himself off.

"Aw, I'm hurt," he said, holding his chest in mock pain.

"Let's go," she huffed, grabbing his hand. "Aang and Toph are waiting for us."

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"What took you so long?" Toph demanded snarkily.

_Is it just me, or is she smirking?_ Katara wondered. Aloud she said, "Sorry, I ran into Zuko."

"Oh really?" _Definitely smirking._ "You ran into him?"

"Yeah," Katara answered suspiciously.

"If you say so," she leered, then wisely dropped the subject. "Anyway, let's get out of here before more guards come."

"Toph, are you sure this is okay?" Aang asked concernedly.

For a moment, Toph did not answer. Finally she muttered, "Let's go," and led their small troupe away from the Bei Fong estate.

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"Sokka, wake up," Katara said, shaking her brother. "We're leaving. Wake up!"

"Five mo' minutes," he grumbled, rolling over in his sleeping bag.

"You have ten seconds before I set that mop of yours on fire," Zuko growled.

"I"m up! I'm up!"

And as they fled the city on Appa's back, no one noticed that Katara was still gripping Zuko's hand.


	41. Calm Before the Storm

Previously on _Superstition_:

Aang finally finds his earthbending master, but Toph's not exactly eager to accept the position. He challenges her to a fight and wins, but her guards find her and arrest Aang and Katara. Sick of her parents' overbearing concern, Toph helps them escape—but makes it look like a kidnapping. The group flees, with Aang's earthbending master as the newest member.

* * *

** Chapter 41 - The Calm Before the Storm**

* * *

"This is ridiculous," Zuko complained, tugging at his too-long peasant shirt.

"You know, this is your fault in the first place," Sokka told him matter-of-factly, adjusting his cap.

"How do you figure?"

"Azula's _your_ sister."

"And so that makes this my fault?"

"Absolutely."

"My sister is a raving psychopath, and you think that's _my_ fault?"

"Sure. Look at Katara, she's normal," Sokka explained, raising one palm like a scale. Then he lifted his other and added, "And then look at Azula. Azula, Katara." He pretended to weigh the two against each other. "You see the difference?"

"I'm failing to see how this makes any sense whatsoever," Zuko deadpanned. "Katara, would you explain to this imbecile that your normalcy has nothing to do with him?"

"Zuko, please, let him have his delusions," Katara sighed pityingly. "I think they help him cope with reality."

"Why are you taking _his_ side, Katara?" Sokka wailed. "You're supposed to be _my _sister!"

"Suck it up, the both of you," she retorted, reaching up to tuck a stray strand of hair into Zuko's makeshift straw wig, then adjusting his eye patch. "Now let's just act like normal people and get this over with."

"Katara," Sokka whined, "do we really have to wear disguises into town? We're just getting some food!"

"There are posters of us in every town in the entire Earth Kingdom," she snapped. "There are thousands of Fire Nation soldiers out looking for us right now, and we can't let them catch us—or Azula. Not to mention that we're wanted for kidnapping Toph. We have to keep a low profile, and keep them away from Aang."

Sokka sighed and crossed his arms, sulking. "Fine. But this straw is itchy!"

"Then just stay here with Aang!" Katara erupted exasperatedly, ripping the straw off his head. "Zuko and I will be fine by ourselves."

"Are you sure?" He eyed Zuko suspiciously.

"Yes, I'm sure," she answered, rolling her eyes. "Now go change back into your normal clothes, stop whining, and keep an eye on Aang and Toph. We'll be back soon."

"And if you're not?" Aang asked from his perch on a tree branch.

"If we're not back by nightfall then you two get out of here," Zuko said harshly.

Katara nodded. "We can't risk you getting caught, Aang. You're too important."

"But-"

"No buts. Don't worry, we'll be back soon. I promise." And then, with a smile and a wave, they left. A faint breeze blew through, ruffling the leaves of the trees, and a few moments of silence passed.

"All right, Twinkle Toes," Toph said finally. "Ready for your first lesson?"

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"I look ridiculous, don't I?"

"What? I think the straw wig is very attractive," Katara laughed. "Now quit complaining, the city gate's coming up, and we're supposed to act like normal people, remember?"

"Normal," Zuko scoffed under his breath. "Do you honestly think anyone is going to fall for this?"

She glared, then strode confidently towards the gate. Zuko rolled his eyes, but stayed with her.

"Name?" Demanded the guard, adjusting his grip on his spear.

"Mei," Katara pointed at herself, then turned her finger to Zuko, "and Li."

"Purpose?"

"We're travelers, and we're just passing through to get some supplies." She smiled sweetly at the guard.

"What happened to his eye?" The guard asked suspiciously, nodding at Zuko's bandaged eye.

"Attacked by a wild hogmonkey, wouldn't you know it?" Katara shook her head. "But it's healing nicely, right, Li?" Zuko nodded mutely, and the guard appeared placated.

"Go ahead," the guard said, nodding them through the gate. "Gates close at sundown."

"No problem," Katara agreed cheerily, catching the underlying 'You better be gone by then' in his tone. "Thanks!" She grabbed Zuko's hand and led him—rather more forcefully than necessary—through the gate. "See?" She asked once they were safely inside the city walls. "I told you this would work."

"It's a wonder you people managed to stay out of trouble for so long," Zuko mused dryly, poking at his straw wig.

"Yes, especially since it was _you_ chasing us most of the time," Katara retorted mock-crossly. Zuko had the manners to look somewhat embarrassed, and cleared his throat awkwardly. Katara punched him lightly in the shoulder, laughing. "Relax, I was joking. That's all behind us now, right?"

"Right," Zuko agreed, suddenly becoming very interested in a merchant stand nearby. Katara followed him into the town's market section, a bustling street full of haggling women and screaming children and loud-mouthed merchants.

"Hey, pretty lady!" Called one merchant, ushering Katara towards his stand of beauty products and accessories. She ignored him, but caught Zuko being tempted by a tent full of blades.

"Zuko, we are here for food, and that's it," Katara told him sternly. "Now let's just buy what we need and get out of here. The longer we stay, the more dangerous it is. Understand?"

"Yeah, yeah," Zuko muttered, dragging his eyes away from the shiny new swords. _Besides,_ he told himself,_ I've already got a pair of broadswords. No need to get another._ _But just one more look wouldn't hurt..._

Very suddenly, Zuko noticed that Katara wasn't with him. He scanned the crowed, but knew she would be near impossible to find—her disguise was good, he had to admit, so good that he wasn't sure he'd recognize her from a distance. She had all her hair in a bun with a scarf tied around her head, so it was difficult to see her hair color. She'd ditched her blue parka for a simple green dress, allowing her to blend in with the resident population.

"Mei?" Zuko called into the crowd using Katara's new pseudonym, but his voice was lost among the chaos of the market. "Mei?" No answer. Finally, after a few minutes of aimless searching, he spotted her chatting with a young merchant at a fruit stand. A _handsome_ young merchant. This did not bode well, he decided. Indignant, he strode towards the stand, ready to tell the merchant exactly where he was going to stick his foot, but before he could get there the merchant turned to grab something, and Katara made eye contact and shooed him away. Stunned, Zuko stalked away, leaving her to flirt with the boy to her heart's content.

About an hour later she found him, sulking against a stone wall with a sour look on his face. "Look what I got!" She announced triumphantly, holding up her bag full of fruits and vegetables. Zuko shrugged, and Katara frowned. "Oh, come on, you're not mad at me, are you?"

"Mad? Why would I be mad?" He glared.

"We didn't have a lot of money, Zuko," she told him, pulling an apple out of the bag. "I had to get enough food for all of us _somehow_."

"Did you have to do it by flirting with that guy?" He asked, hating himself for sounding so jealous.

"Would you rather me have been trying that on some old fat guy?"

Zuko pondered this for a few seconds, and obviously didn't like the mental image he was getting. "Point taken."

"It's really good fruit, too," she announced, taking a bite out of the apple and grinning wickedly. "Want a taste?" Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed him deeply.

"Good fruit," Zuko agreed breathlessly when they broke the kiss. "Think I could have some more?"

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"No, no, no!" Toph was shouting when they returned. "It's with your feet, not your ankles, stupid! Feet!"

"I'm trying," Aang grunted pitifully, his eyes closed and his face scrunched into an expression of either intense concentration or severe pain. Katara had a feeling it was a little of both.

"We're back," Katara announced, surprising Sokka and Aang. Toph appeared to have been expecting them, which worried Katara—just how much could she see through her feet? And how far away? She'd have to ask Toph later...

"Whoa! Is that all food?" Sokka cried, leaping towards the backpack and ignoring his sister. He ripped open the bag and moaned, "I'm starving," just before stuffing an entire fruit into his mouth.

"How was your lesson, Aang?" Katara asked sheepishly, slightly put off by his expression.

"Terrible," he groaned, opening his eyes. "I can barely move a pebble."

"Don't worry about it," she consoled, patting him on the back. "You'll get better."

"I hope so," he muttered, looking slightly less miserable now that Katara was back. "How was shopping with Zuko?"

"It was good," Katara answered vaguely. "We got lots of food."

"No trouble in the town?"

"Just a few wanted posters, the usual."

"That's good." Aang smiled at her, and she returned the smile. It was nice to be back with her family, she decided. Really nice. Then she noticed Toph smirking at her.

_Uh-oh._ _She knows._

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"There are posters up in every town in the Earth Kingdom," Azula complained coldly as the soldier slipped into her room. "Why haven't they been captured yet?"

"We're working on it, Princess Azula," answered an obviously nervous officer, wringing his hands. "We just received a lead that the Avatar was in a city north of here. He kidnapped a young girl, Princess . There is a possibility that her family may find the Avatar first."

"Keep your eye on them, and if they find the Avatar, kill them and bring the Avatar to me," Azula instructed flippantly. "And if they don't find the Avatar, kill them anyway."

"Yes, Princess." The officer bowed and closed the door behind him, leaving Azula alone to contemplate. After his latest failure, she wasn't sure she wanted to associate with Zhao again—his weakness could be viewed as her own weakness, and Azula did _not_ like to look weak.

_Guess it's time to call up the girls._


	42. The Rivals

Previously on _Superstition_: Aang finally finds his earthbending master, but Toph's not exactly eager to accept the position. He challenges her to a fight and wins, but her guards find her and arrest Aang and Katara. Sick of her parents' overbearing concern, Toph helps them escape—but makes it look like a kidnapping. The group flees, with Aang's earthbending master as the newest member. But the Bei Fongs aren't the only ones looking for the Gaang...

* * *

**Chapter 42 - The Rivals**

* * *

"No trouble in the town?" Aang asked upon Katara and Zuko's return, lookig exhausted from his earthbending training.

"Just a few wanted posters, the usual."

"That's good."

"See any for me?" Toph asked, not looking at Katara.

"No, why?"

"Didn't think so," Toph grumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Toph was pretty sure Aang was staring curiously at her, but it's hard to tell when one is blind.

"My parents have kept me under wraps since I was born. I'm kind of the family secret. So I guess they wouldn't _reveal my existence_ to anyone just to find me after I've been kidnapped."

"Hey, at least your dad didn't try to burn your face off," Sokka offered, motioning towards Zuko, who just shrugged.

Toph nodded thoughfully. "Huh. Guess you're right. Could be worse," Toph realized in a rare moment of optimism. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Scarface."

Zuko flinched at the nickname. "Yeah, no problem," he mumbled, glaring at Katara as she muffled laughter behind her hands.

"Alright, Twinkle Toes," Toph grinned, cracking her knuckles. "Ready for round two?"

Aang groaned.

The next two weeks passed with little occurrence. They traveled and slept at night, letting Appa sleep through the day. Aang continued his firebending and earthbending training on alternate days with Zuko and Toph, and seemed to be struggling with both. Toph had gotten desperate enough to trap the poor Avatar in an outcrop of rock for five hours in an attempt to force him into learning.

Zuko was more patient but not by much. He hadn't set fire to the boy yet, so Katara figured that Zuko was doing alright. Aang's memory of burning Katara was evidently still strong enough to block his firebeding abilites, and despite both her and Zuko's assurances that it had been an accident and wouldn't happen again he could still only conjure the tiniest and most pathetic of sparks.

Interestingly, Katara noticed that Zuko and Sokka had been getting along fairly well lately. Or at least, Zuko hadn't torched Sokka and Sokka hadn't slit Zuko's throat in his sleep. But the real shocker had come when she happened upon the boys in a clearing in the forest, each with a sword in hand and a serious demeanor. She had been mere seconds away from freezing them both where they stood and delivering a loud and lengthy lecture on the proper way to alleviate aggression, but stopped herself when she realized that they were not swinging at each other but rather in synchronized motion, practicing movements. She was so stunned that she could only watch in silent wonder as Sokka mirrored Zuko's graceful, controlled arcs and thrusts. Eventually she regained conscious thought and returned to the campsite, never mentioning a word even as their 'lessons' continued almost daily.

All in all, Katara figured everything had been peaceful since kidnapping Toph. With Zuko no longer a threat and the Fire Nation soldiers almost too easy to avoid, the group was enjoying a relatively quiet fortnight. In fact, Katara's only worry was that Toph would spill the beans on her and Zuko's secret relationship. Though the blind girl hadn't said anything, Katara would have bet anything that behind that smirk was a mind cunning enough to blackmail, tease, and torture without remorse. She avoided being alone with Toph as much as possible, but even in groups the girl managed to make subtle remarks about the amount of time she and Zuko spent together.

She may have felt a false sense of security as she and Zuko—or Mei and Li as they were known in public—entered the village for food, but she would have been the last to recognize it. So it was a surprise when a middle-aged, filthy-faced man stepped out of the metalsmith's shop and summoned them to the door, not inviting them. in. He leaned towards Katara and whispered in her ear, "Watch where you're going and where you've been. Don't let your guard down. You'll find what you're looking for in Ba Sing Se." He reached for her hand and pressed something small and hard into it, wrapping her fingers around it and pushing her hand back down. "Now go," he shooed. "And be careful." He glanced around conspiratorially before nodding her farewell and closing the thick wooden door quickly.

"What did he give you?" Zuko asked worriedly, grabbing her fisted hand. She uncurled her fingers to reveal a tiny porcelain tile. "A white lotus pai sho tile?"

"Pai sho? What's that?"

"It's a game. My uncle used to love it."

"He's not dead, Zuko."

"Oh. Right."

"But what does it mean?"

Zuko shrugged and asked, "What did he tell you?"

"He said to watch where we're going and where we've been, that we can't let our guard down, and that we'll find what we're looking for in Ba Sing Se."

"Ba Sing Se?"

"You've heard of it?"

"You haven't?" Zuko asked incredulously as they approached the city wall.

Katara shook her head and fingered the tile.

"It's the only major Earth Kingdom city that was able to resist the Fire Nation's occupation during the Fire Nation invasion." He paused, then added, "My uncle led that invasion."

"Oh," Katara replied, unsure how to react and feeling slightly awkward.

Fortunately, it was right about then that the earth started shaking and a sleazy-sounding male voice drawled, "Well now, look who we found. Just the kids we were looking for."

"Well now, look who we found, girls. Just what we were looking for," Azula drawled condescendingly as she approached the campsite on lizard-back. Two girls trailed close behind her on their own lizards, a dark-haired serious-looking girl and a worried-looking brunette. "I must tell you, Avatar, you've proved rather tricky to find."

"Yeah, that's kinda the point," Sokka called back, sword at the ready. Toph had given them ample warning to prepare, but without Katara and Zuko they weren't going anywhere. Sokka just hoped they were hurrying back. "And who are you guys?"

"_Friends_ of Azula's," the dark-haired girl all but snarled, looking extremely unhappy. "Now just come with us so we can go home." Azula turned to deliver a sharp warning glare, but the girl just rolled her eyes.

"Now Mai, you sound like you didn't want to come," Azula simpered threateningly, not taking her eyes off the Avatar.

"Whatever could you mean, Azula," the girl—Mai—continued in a monotone. "Who wouldn't want to leave the Fire Nation capital to chase around a twelve-year-old on a giant lizard."

Azula was furious but knew it wasn't the time. She could deal with Mai later, and Ty Lee for not standing up for her as well. Right now, she had the Avatar as good as in her hands.

"Really, she's right through here, I swear," came Katara's voice suddenly, sounding strangely meek and feminine. Seconds later she emerged from the trees with Zuko and two earthbenders.

"Lady Toph, we're here to rescue you," said the sleazy man. The other one didn't appear to talk much.

"Oh brother," Sokka moaned. "This is gonna get ugly."

"Excuse me," Azula began with false sweetness, "but you're interrupting something rather important, so it would be appreciated if you would leave immediately."

"Shaddup, girlie," the quiet bulky one growled. "Mind yer own business."

For a moment Azula looked stunned, but she regained her composure quickly. "You will leave now," she commanded.

The men ignored her. "Lady Toph, please."

"Back off. Who said I wanted to be rescued?" Toph stood her ground, settling into a fighting stance. "Now leave or I'll beat you again."

"Two against one? Girlie, just give it up," the sleazy man laughed.

"Two against one?" Sokka repeated. "Looks like two against five to me. Or did they not teach you how to count at earthbender school?"

Without warning the ground quite literally exploded in front of the two men's feet. "I told you to leave," Azula warned.

"You lookin' for a fight, missy? 'Cuz now you got one." The bulky man immediately began hurling torso-sized chunks of rock at the girls, whose lizards quickly scurried out of the way. Azula was furious. A bolt of lightning crashed into the earth from her fingers, sending dust flying in all directions.

"Mai! Ty Lee! Get the Avatar!" Azula cried, already engaged in combat. On cue the girls jumped from their seats and charged Aang as the group ran towards Appa. Sokka held his ground, holding out his boomerang rather than his borrowed sword. He thrust it toward the brunette—Ty Lee, Azula had called her—but hit air as the girl pirouetted behind him and jabbed his arm, rendering it limp. He stared at his useless arm as if it had betrayed him, which for all intents and purposes it had.

"Hey," Ty Lee suddenly smiled brightly as she got face-to-face with the water tribe boy. "You're kinda cute!" Then she jabbed his other arm. Sokka could only mumble incoherently as he stumbled backwards, falling onto Appa and getting dragged into the saddle. Ty Lee smiled at him sweetly before bouncing backwards, making no further attempt to catch the Avatar.

Mai, in the meantime, had somehow found herself pinned to a tree with ice daggers. A dagger-thrower herself, she did not find this turn of events amusing. (Though she was sure Ty Lee did, since the girl was muffling a laugh as she pulled the daggers out of the tree bark and Mai's clothing.)

When the fighting finally stopped and the dust cleared, Azula found herself in the clearing with two unconscious earthbenders and her two friends. The Avatar had vanished.

Father would not be happy about this.


	43. The Pursuers

CHAPTER 43 - The Pursuers

* * *

"So your sister actually has friends?"

"...shut up, Sokka," Katara growled.

"You're right, Katara. It's not _his_ fault that his sister is nuts. Older brothers cannot be held responsible for crazy little sisters."

"...seriously Sokka, shut up before I _make _you."

Sokka went silent.

"Talk about a lucky coincidence, right?" Toph said brightly, apparently cheered by the knowledge that her parents had sent dangerous, creepy men to pursue her. "They completely ignored us to beat on each other."

"Oh, Aang!" Katara cried suddenly, reaching into a pocket to fish something out. "Something strange happened in the town today. A man gave me a pai sho tile and-"

"Pai sho? I love pai sho! I used to play with the monks all the time! You should see the huge pai sho tables at the air temples, they're-"

"Aang," she cut him off gently. "Focus. He also said that we'll find what we're looking for in Ba Sing Se."

"Never heard of it," he answered promptly.

"It's a great Earth Kingdom city, one of the few to resist Fire Nation invasion," Zuko supplemented helpfully. "It should be easy to find. Do we have a map?"

"Yes, but not with any city names," Katara answered, pulling a scroll out of a bag and handing it to Zuko.

Zuko unrolled the scross and pointed with his finger. "Here," he said. "This is Ba Sing Se."

"You're sure?" Toph asked skeptically.

"Yes. Well... yes."

"Well, he's got _my _vote of confidence," Toph muttered sarcastically.

"'We'll find what we're looking for in Ba Sing Se?'" Sokka repeated. "What are we looking for?"

"Not a clue," Katara shrugged. "A plan, maybe. Who knows? I think we should go."

"Ba Sing Se would probably be safe from Azula, too," Zuko added. "It'll take about a week to get there."

"Then to Ba Sing Se it is," Aang cheered. "Appa, yip yip!"

It took only two days for Azula to catch up to them. All things considered, Zuko was amazed it had taken her that long. Unfortunately, she didn't appear to be in the best of moods.

"Where is the Avatar?" She demanded, surveying the scene. The waterbending wench was there, along with her useless brother. Azula's own traitor brother was there too. The little earthbender girl and the Avatar were missing.

"Not here," Katara answered nonchalantly. Aang and Toph were practicing earthbending nearby, but she wasn't about to volunteer any information.

"What do you mean he's not here?" Azula screeched, her face red with rage and her eyes literally radiating hatred.

"Did I stutter?" Katara stood in front of the remainder of the group, with arms akimbo and a fierce stance.

Azula looked stunned, as if this single departure from her plan was ruining her entire scheme to capture the Avatar. Her eyebrows were scrunched in frustration and she was blinking rapidly, flustered and unsure of what to do. "Well... I guess we'll just have to capture you and use you as bait for the Avatar!" She cried triumphantly, apparently thrilled with her new plan.

Behind her, Mai and Ty Lee exchanged glances. Neither looked particularly happy to be there.

"Y'know, Azula, we could always come back later," Ty Lee suggested cheerfully, smiling sweetly. She just barely managed to dodge Azula's furious flames

"We are not leaving without the Avatar!"

"What's going on?"

"The Avatar!"

Katara facepalmed. "Aang, the idea is for you to _stay hidden_ when people come looking for you."

"What, and miss a good fight?" Challenged Toph, cracking her knuckles. "I don't think so."

Zuko stepped in front of Aang just in time to deflect Azula's attack. "Give it up, Azula," he admonished. "Go home. We've got a firebender, a master waterbender, a master earthbender, and the Avatar on our side."

"Hey! What about me?"

"...and Sokka," Zuko amended. Sokka nodded in approval. "You're outnumbered and outmatched, Azula."

"Oh Zuzu," Azula simpered, "are you forgetting that I am a firebending prodigy?"

In one swift, fluid movement Azula channeled the blue lightning towards them, felling trees with an explosion of wood wherever the lightning struck. Splinters and chips of wood flew through the air. Shrieking, Katara dove to the ground, grabing Zuko and Sokka's hand to drag them down with her. Toph shielded herself and Aang with a wall of stone.

"See, Zuko? I don't need even numbers. I-"

"Mai?" Ty Lee cried suddenly, desperately. "Mai, are you okay? Mai!"

Just as Azula turned look, Aang jumped over Toph's wall and knocked Azula off her feet with strong gust of wind. Behind her, he could see Mai underneath a fallen tree, Ty Lee trying futilely to lift it off her. He leaped over Azula and used another burst of windpower to move the tree off the unconscious girl.

"Azula, she's not moving!" Ty Lee was sobbing, her ear on Mai's chest. "I can't hear her breathing, Azula! Azula!"

Azula was frozen in place, her eyes shifting between Aang and her friends. Making a split-second move, she attacked Aang with a ferocity he hadn't seen in her before, a furious desperation. He could hear Ty Lee crying, calling Mai's name over and over, and he could see the effect on Azula.

"Azula, we have to get Mai to a doctor!" Ty Lee yelled over the noise of combat. "Stop fighting! We have to get Mai to a doctor! Azula!"

Azula made no indication that she had heard Ty Lee, and kept attacking Aang with fire. Determined, Ty Lee sprung into action and, unexpectedly, hit the pressure points in Azula's arms—the firebending points. Azula wouldn't be able to firebend for a few hours, and as far as Ty Lee was concerned that was enough time for Mai.

"We have to get Mai to a doctor," she enunciated, her hands firm on Azula's shoulders and tears streaming from her eyes. Aang took advantage of the distraction to flee the scene and hop on Appa, where the rest of the gang was already waiting for him. Sokka, already holding the reigns, cried "Yip yip," and within seconds they were gone.

Sokka was in a good mood as he headed down to the river to bathe. The weather was nice, they were camping just outside of a decent city with cheap food, and it had been two whole days since they'd seen Azula and company. He was just grabbing at the bottom of his shirt to lift it over his head when he noticed something on the other side of the river, something that looked vaguely like a person. Frowning, he waded through the shallow water and gasped when he got to the other side.

Lying against a tree was a girl, badly burnt and obviously in pain. He poked the girl in the arm in an unburnt spot and asked, "Hey, are you okay?" She moaned incoherently, painfully, and didn't open her eyes. Gingerly, he picked her up and carried her carefully across the river and back to the camp.

"You sure didn't take long, Sokka. Did you—" Katara stopped mid-sentence, stunned. She rushed to her brother, who was laying the girl down on his sleeping bag. "Isn't that one of Azula's friends?"

"I think her name is Ty Lee," Sokka answered. "Can you help her?"

"I don't know, Sokka. Burns are hard to heal. And they're not fresh," she said worriedly, inspecting the girl's charred skin. "But I'll do the best I can."


End file.
